Death of an Investigator
by Monica Moss
Summary: A few years after we started working with Oliver Davis, SPR encountered a dead thief very aware of the world around him with an agenda he would not leave unfinished. Our investigation of his case was just part of a larger, much more dangerous mystery than even Naru had ever encountered. Why did anyone have to die? Don't need to know Detective Conan.
1. Prologue

Prologue

Right Now

* * *

I love my job, but sometimes our cases end in tragedy. Right now, I am attending a funeral for a brilliant but arrogant investigator whose cause of death the authorities will never be able to determine.

I sit in the back row with the rest of SPR, letting the parents who had flown in from out of the country sit up front. I see a fellow investigator that the deceased had spent years of his life working with also sitting close to the front. I see that the middle is filled with grateful members of the Japanese police force, as well as by several foreigners that the dead man had been professionally involved with.

I would not have seen something like this coming thirteen days ago...


	2. Chapter I

Chapter I

Days 1 and 2: 13 and 12 Days Ago

* * *

Almost two weeks ago, an old cop, Inspector Ginzo Nakamori, came in for a consultation, muttering mean things about his own subordinates. He wore civilian clothing, which tipped off my boss, the nineteen-year-old Dr. Oliver Davis, about the secretive nature of the heartrending case that the inspector brought to us about a juvenile detention center in the Ekoda district.

Inspector Nakamori explained to us: "One of our guards has been the target of several incidents lately and is currently in hospital. My stupid subordinates swear it's the ghost of a prisoner who's been dead for a decade that's responsible. I want you to stop that stupid rumor."

I felt a nerve twitch as I served him his tea. I was thinking dark thoughts about the condescending skeptical inspector while Naru asked smoothly, "Why do your subordinates think it's a ghost responsible?"

Nakamori took a large sip of tea. "It happened in the break room," he answered. "The victim was chatting with one of our psychologists when the power went out. Our psychologist said she saw someone attacking in the darkness, who she described as a big white glowing translucent human silhouette. But I can tell you, whatever attacked was not the prisoner who died ten years ago."

Naru started talking about the value of the police holding their own investigation, but he found out the hard way that Inspector Nakamori has a flash temper: Inspector Nakamori yelled at him that the police _had_ held their own investigation and had turned up some odder things.

The inspector told us more about the odd things that that had turned up once he'd calmed down. "Both the victim and the witness reported that our senior administrator saved our guard's life by running in and throwing a flashlight at the assailant, after which the assailant disappeared. But our security cameras have no footage of the incident, and our administrator reported staying in the office during the blackout."

I looked at Naru's face and saw that he looked mildly intrigued. "A person in two places at once? What did your investigation uncover about that?"

Inspector Nakamori shook his head. "We couldn't find anything, but we did start to take two other incidents our guard had reported seriously. When we investigated them, we found that our security tapes were blank at the time of both incidents, but they did contain footage of the resolution of one that gave us a puzzle: our guard had complained that an invisible person had locked her inside one of the cells and left her there until I released her. I had been recorded letting her out on the security camera, but _I_ had been at a live press conference about a recent teenage celebrity's arrest at the time."

When Inspector Nakamori said that, Naru was actually interested. He accepted the case and asked for more details.

* * *

Early the next morning, we left for the detention center. Naru summarized the incidents that Inspector Nakamori had discussed for Lin's benefit: the victim, Officer Futari Mujin, had been beaten with a police baton by an apparation, had been locked inside a cell as she was trying to escort its occupants to see their psychologist, and had nearly been strangled in the break room by the same apparition.

When we arrived, we were greeted by the psychologist who had witnessed the last attack, Miss Hosachi Sumi. As we followed her through the celled hallways, I got the feeling of the eyes of death emanating from an empty cell we passed.

"Excuse me, Sumi-san?" I asked. I pointed to the empty cell. "Is that the cell Officer Mujin was locked in?"

Sumi-san let out a small gasp when she saw which cell I was talking about. "That cell? No."

Naru joined the conversation. "You seem surprisingly familiar with the cell for a psychologist."

Sumi-san shuddered. "Everyone who works here knows about _that_ cell. It's been empty since a prisoner was found dead in it ten years ago. It's like everyone is afraid to disturb a cell with a cold case attached to it."

"A cold case?" I looked wide-eyed at the cell. "You mean, it hasn't been solved?"

Naru answered just as coldly as the prisoner's case and grave, "That's what a cold case is, Mai."

I couldn't tear my eyes from the cell. My breath caught in my throat as the lights seemed to dim and the feeling of dead eyes on me intensified.

Then, all at once, the feeling disappeared and the lighting returned to normal. However, I still had shivers running down my spine. I held my arms around myself in an attempt at comfort, but I _knew_ that the cell was haunted.

After a few minutes of standing there, I realized I had zoned out and fallen behind. I spared one last quick glance at the dead prisoner's cell and jogged to catch up with the group.

Up ahead, I heard Naru asking about someone he thought should have met us instead of Sumi-san. I heard the psychologist reply that said person was being chewed out by Inspector Nakamori. Her explanation caught my attention: "... Oogami suggested that the prisoner who died here has been impersonating the staff to mess with the detention center's smooth operation, and Nakamori hated the suggestion."

As we walked through the halls, I couldn't help but think about the dead prisoner who had been watching us from his cell impersonating the staff and about Inspector Nakamori lambasting his underling for suggesting it. The first thought was a frightening one, but what came through my lips was about the second: "What an ogre of an inspector."

Sumi-san heard me. She chuckled. "Nakamori does come across that way at first, doesn't he?"

I blinked. What did she mean by _at first?_ "How do you see the inspector?"

Sumi-san smiled. "He's nuts, but he's a good man. He works here because he really wants to help kids that have crossed to the wrong side of the law." She glanced over at me. "He's rough and gruff, but that makes him something like a loyal bulldog to these kids."

"Do the prisoners see him that way?" I asked.

She nodded. "Many of the boys here grow to look up to him. Of course, some of the girls take to him after a while because the inspector sometimes remembers how to act around teenage girls. He did have a daughter once."

"He did? What happened to her?"

But Sumi-san could only indicate that she didn't know. "He doesn't like talking about it."

I couldn't have known then that the inspector's daughter played the role she did in this case.

* * *

We took the rest of the morning to set up and get familiar with the detention center. I gathered our case's witnesses for SPR's most brilliant, most arrogant investigator – five witnesses in all.

From the break room incident were Hosachi Sumi-san and Keshou Oogami-san – the psychologist who had witnessed the assault and the administrator who hadn't really rescued Officer Mujin. From the cell incident were Inspector Nakamori and two prisoners named Meda – the inspector who had not released Officer Mujin and the brothers whose cell she had been locked in.

Oogami-san was the most helpful of the five. The first thing he did when he came to talk to Naru was lower his voice, as though to avoid the Grim Reaper's notice, and say, "These incidents were not the first time they've happened."

Naru scowled. "I need you to be more specific. Not the first time what's happened?"

"Impersonations. Didn't you notice while talking to Sumi? She thinks the inspector's nuts because he remembers having conversations with staff or prisoners here that they themselves don't remember."

"How long has this been happening?"

"It's been happening since before Nakamori transferred from the theft and fraud division. Since back when he came in with those great detectives to look into the death of the one responsible for the impersonations. Kuroba's always been a troublesome one, but now his evil has been escalating to things like _this_."

My eyes widened. I hadn't known that Inspector Nakamori had investigated the death ten years ago with _great_ detectives. I remembered what Sumi-san said about the death never being solved, but if _great_ detectives had investigated, why could no one close the case? Could it be that Kuroba-san's death itself had had a supernatural cause? I had a feeling this case could turn deadly.

I shook my head and told myself to get a grip, but my hair still stood up on the back of my neck as I forced myself to listen to what Oogami-san told Naru and Lin about the prisoner named Kaito Kuroba and the guard who had also disappeared ten years ago.

Naru, as he listened, looked like a child ogling a much-coveted toy. "You're saying that Kuroba-san was the Phantom Thief Kid, the world's most infamous magician thief?"

Who?

Oogami-san confirmed Kuroba-san's apparent identity, and Naru's eyes twinkled. "I see. So that's why he knows how to do impersonations. That's one part of the mystery solved, but what's the truth behind attack in the break room?"

The administrator sighed. "You can ask anyone who was on Kid's task force and get the same answer: people were toys to the jerk, and life was a game to be played. It's probably a source of amusement to him to cause confusion by impersonating me to rescue someone from a violent character fashioned by himself. Besides, even if Kid weren't a ghost, if anyone knew how to be in two places at once, it would be him."

I had the feeling that I was missing something again.

"Naru..." I started, and he was quick to know what I wanted.

"The Phantom Thief Kid was an infamous thief professionally trained in magic. He tended to run his heists like a show. He was unfortunately too good to get captured until he got shot, apparently saving a police officer from a bullet. But that was a decade ago, and no one ever figured out why he ever did anything anyway, even after the statement he gave when he was caught."

Naru paused. "I'm an amateur magician myself," he informed Oogami-san, "so my adoptive parents took me to watch one of his heists in England when I was a child. He handled himself like both a seasoned magician and a seasoned villain, but I guess if he was still young enough to come here when he was captured, he can't have been old enough to have been the original."

"It was most likely that he took up the same career as his father before him," Oogami-san said. "Nakamori said that that alone could be the most important reason that the kid became Kid, but we still don't know what drove him to do any of the specific crimes he did, and we don't have any real motive for his father to be Kid at all. Nor do we have any reason why he'd attack Mujin other than to make a game of it."

Naru couldn't think of any reason other than the one that Oogami-san had offered as to why Kuroba-san would attack Officer Mujin, but he couldn't think of any other explanation behind the attack, so he accepted it as a working theory for the time being. I shuddered – if that was true, then we were dealing with another monster who would hold no regard for investigators' lives.

"Oogami-san," Naru asked, "who else knows about Kuroba-san's identity?"

"Only the inspector," the man replied. "Because we work with minors here, the administration only reveals what the prisoners' crimes were to people who need to know. The inspector already knew because he was the one to arrest Kuroba, but Kuroba died before anyone except relevant members of the administrative staff could be told anything."

"I see. Is there anything else we should know about Kuroba-san?"

"What's there to know?" Oogami-san asked. "Nakamori called in the best detectives he could, but Kuroba's death remained a complete mystery. The only unexplored lead would be the witness of the guard on duty who vanished that night – Batou Yagi. But in all honesty, there are many suspicions that Yagi killed the kid himself and fled."

The administrator, at that point, was out of things to tell us of.

In the end, none of the others were able to give us any new information on the case either. We needed to approach the case from another direction, so Lin suggested expanding our research to other prisoners who could have seen the attacks – like the ones in the Medas' hall for instance. It was a long shot, but Naru acted on Lin's suggestion. He asked permission for us to talk to the prisoners, and we were granted permission to mingle with the criminal crowd during lunch the next day.


	3. Chapter II

Chapter II

Day 3: 11 Days Ago

* * *

Eleven days ago we spoke with the prisoners in the cafeteria. When we first walked in, I had the feeling someone was watching me, but it was a passing feeling. I forgot about it for a while as I was speaking with the prisoners, but a similarly creepy feeling emerged when I finally spoke with a prisoner who could give me information: I was unnerved by the wild-haired boy's sheer confidence, retained even in a place like prison.

The boy had passed several of his fellow prisoners, greeting them along his way, and took a seat near the Meda brothers. He'd dared me to sit by him, looking so confident that I'd join him that I found I couldn't refuse. Then he grinned, blue eyes sparkling with a permanent mischievous glint from underneath his black bangs. "You're one of those ghost hunters, Mai Taniyama, right?" The boy didn't wait for a response. "I'm Kasu Paru. It's nice to meet you."

I was unnerved, but I didn't think Paru-san was dangerous, so I swallowed my fear and sat by him. Then he asked me about SPR's investigation.

I told him briefly about our usual start-of-case procedures, then added, "We've hit a dead end on whatever Inspector Nakamori's withholding from us. We'd need him or a great detective like the ones who investigated Kuroba-san's death to give us more information."

"Him or a great detective, huh? Well, since the inspector's already here, why do you think he won't talk?"

"I don't know, but he's not being at all nice to anyone else involved in the investigation either!"

"That ogrish inspector!" Paru-san must have been smiling as he said that, but I missed it.

Instead, I gave him a small smile. "So you don't like him much either."

"Are you kidding?" the teen exclaimed. "I'd give my life for that man! My feelings just don't change the fact that he acts like an ogre sometimes."

"He really does though. Just yesterday he was chewing out Oogami-san for suggesting that the prisoner who died here ten years ago has been causing trouble with his knowledge of disguises."

Paru-san was amused. "You mean Kaito Kuroba? I've heard a lot of stories about him. He was quite the prankster, but he really hated it when people actually got hurt. He's more likely to go out of his way to protect anyone than harm them."

"Why do you say that?"

The prisoner shrugged. "Ever hear that the guy only got arrested 'cause he shielded Inspector Nakamori from a bullet? He would have made another amazing getaway otherwise."

It was Inspector Nakamori that Kid had saved? "Why would Kuroba-san shield Inspector Nakamori from a bullet?"

Still amused, Paru-san answered, "It seems Kid knew the inspector personally."

A flash of cold ran through my blood. _How_ was Kuroba-san connected to the inspector? "He did?"

Paru-san shrugged again. "Kuroba had been friends with the inspector's daughter from childhood, and it looks like he fell in love with her or something like that. Seems she didn't return his feelings though, 'cause she didn't even show up to his funeral. Anyway, it's just as unsurprising that Kid saved Inspector Nakamori back then as it is that his real name has been floating around talk of the hauntings that have been targeting Inspector Nakamori's daughter lately."

Inspector Nakamori's daughter?

But Paru-san wasn't done talking. "Anyway," he continued, tone changing to a less confident one, "I'm in the same hallway that Kaito Kuroba was in when he died, and I have a feeling that something's going to happen tonight. Do you think _you_ could be there to take a look?"

"If you think there's going to be trouble, I'll be there," I promised. But instead of looking at him, I stared at the table, thinking about what he had just told me.

Did Paru-san mean that there was more than one victim? Could Kuroba-san be sore that his friend hadn't come to his funeral? Even if that was so, why was Officer Mujin involved?

I hadn't realized that I had zoned out until I heard Paru-san ask, "What are you thinking about, Taniyama-san?" I looked up and realized that he was gazing at me rather than paying any attention to his untouched food.

I relaxed with the way he was looking at me. I still found his confidence unnerving, but his concern was comforting. He felt something like a big brother. "Oh, you can just call me Mai."

The prisoner grinned. "In that case, you can call me in like manner. I've never been big on formalities either. Anyway, what were you thinking about, Mai?"

"I was thinking about Kuroba-san. Why would he attack the other victim?"

"The other?" Kasu Paru interrupted, confused. "I thought only the inspector's daughter, Aoko Mujin, had been attacked."

"_Aoko _Mujin?" I repeated. "I thought the victim was _Futari _Mujin."

"What?" Kasu's voice raised half an octave, confidence having disappeared from it. "_Futari _Mujin? You mean...? She's _not_ the inspector's daughter, is she?"

I blinked. What was with Kasu all of a sudden? "What are you talking about?"

Kasu explained hurriedly, "Officer Mujin looked so much like the inspector that I thought she might have been his daughter until you said her full name, but the inspector's daughter is named Aoko, isn't she?"

My eyes went wide. "Kasu, do you think Kuroba-san might have mistaken Officer Mujin for the inspector's daughter?"

"Well, yes," Kasu answered, "but..."

I stood up quickly. "Then targeting Officer Mujin is Kuroba-san's attempt at revenge on the inspector's daughter! If that's the case, I've got to tell Inspector Nakamori!"

I swept my eyes around the room, looking for the inspector, but he wasn't present. But I did see Naru talking to some of the young ladies in the prison. "Naru!" I called.

Behind me, Kasu called, "Mai! What if Kuroba isn't the guilty party? I don't think he would hurt anyone!" So he said, but I didn't see any way it _wasn't_ Kuroba-san.

* * *

Once SPR had gathered together to pool our information, Naru made me wait through the information Lin had gathered on various detectives that had been connected to Kid for me to share what I'd learned from Kasu once I said I didn't have gut feeling about it.

Maybe I should have been paying more attention to Lin, but the only detectives I remember I remembered later because they'd been connected to our case in at least some small way: Shin'ichi Kudou-san, Kogorou Mouri-san, Conan Edogawa-kun, and Heiji Hattori-san.

I had heard of the still-famous missing detective Kudou, as well as the famous still-active detectives Mouri and Hattori, but it was from Lin that I first heard of the extremely young great detective Conan, who had followed his cousin Shin'ichi Kudou's example and vanished at the peak of his career. Lin didn't have to tell us that Detective Kudou and Conan-kun were most likely dead, but we didn't know yet that they were victims in the same case we were investigating.

Then, finally, it was my turn to share what Kasu and I had talked about over lunch.

"That's a stupid idea." Such was Naru's opinion of what I'd learned from Kasu.

I reddened. "Excuse me?"

"I said," the narcissist repeated, "that's a stupid idea. You leave the brain work to someone with a brain, got it?"

"Kasu told me Kuroba-san's motive, and you tell me it's stupid?"

Naru looked my way, eyes narrowed. "Paru-san gave you information. _You_ came up with a motive. Besides, shouldn't you think it strange if Paru-san really did think that the motive for such dangerous attacks on Officer Mujin are what you said it is if he also told you that he thinks Kid's a harmless prankster? What is strange though is why he said he wants you to check out his hallway tonight if he said such a thing – what exactly are his intentions toward you?"

"I'd be safe going!" I snapped. "Besides Kasu being behind bars, he feels more like an annoying big brother than an actually dangerous person. If I didn't go and something did happen, I would feel extremely guilty about it!"

My boss sighed. "There's no helping it then: I'll simply have to be your escort tonight."

I crossed my arms. "Fine!" I huffed. "But if my theory's so _stupid_, what do you think happened here, you narcissist?"

"I'm not sure," Naru answered, "but Kuroba-san is probably not the culprit behind the attacks on Officer Mujin."

That was puzzling to me, so I just had to ask. "Why not?"

"I agree with Oogami-san's assessment about Kuroba-san impersonating the living. The living could not have been in two places at once otherwise. If we think about the incident in the break room in terms of Kuroba-san having mistaken Officer Mujin for his childhood friend, it makes no sense for him to have been seriously attacking her at the same time he was rescuing her, even if he did get too carried away in a prank. Such a prank would require a high level of awareness of the world of the living, high enough that he should not have forgotten how delicate human lives are."

Suddenly, I understood: Kuroba-san had mistaken Officer Mujin for his childhood friend and was indeed involved in the case, but instead of holding a grudge against his friend and attacking her lookalike, he still had feelings for his friend and was trying to protect her. A moment later, I blushed as I realized I had blurted my realization aloud again.

"What did you say, Mai?" Naru asked.

"Um, Kuroba-san has been protecting Officer Mujin because he's still in love with the inspector's daughter."

No sooner had the words left my mouth than Inspector Nakamori burst into our base. "Meda tells me you think Kaito's behind the attacks because he wants revenge on my daughter! I called you backstabbers in here to clear his name. I'm telling you _IT'S NOT KAITO!_ He would _never _do something like this! You phony psychics disgust me."

The inspector growled and very rudely pointed at Naru. "You!" he shouted, calming down just a touch, "I'm going to have you move all your equipment to Kaito's hallway to let you see for yourselves that he's not here. In the morning, you're all dismissed!"

I looked over at Naru. Would he try to make us leave again before our case was finished?

But Naru called after Inspector Nakamori, "A moment, Inspector. We don't think Kuroba-san is at fault either."

The inspector turned back around, crossing his arms. "Explain."

"From the information Mai gathered, Kuroba-san attacking someone who looks like your daughter to satisfy a grudge was a plausible theory, but we quickly dismissed it. It's more likely that Kuroba-san's still in love with your daughter and has been protecting her lookalike from death."

Inspector Nakamori remained in our base, but he still looked pretty angry. Finally, he said, "Kissing up to me will get you nowhere. Besides, as I said, Kaito is not haunting this place. He'd constantly be trying to be the center of attention if he were."

As the inspector turned to leave again, Naru asked his retreating back, "Kuroba-san was a master of disguise, wasn't he? Isn't it plausible that he disguised himself as you and Oogami-san to rescue Officer Mujin?"

In the doorway, Inspector Nakamori glanced back at us over his shoulder. "If you can prove that Kaito is still here by noon tomorrow, I'll keep you on the case. But either way, I'm inclined to call in a detective."

My gaze lingered on the doorway that Inspector Nakamori had just left. "He was grumpier than ever, but Kasu was right about him and Kuroba-san, wasn't he? He and Kuroba-san... no wonder..."

Naru sent me a look. "You're stupid. You just now figured out that it's not the alleged haunting that's gotten under his skin, but who's suspected of attacking Officer Mujin, didn't you? You clearly weren't paying attention at the consultation."

I felt my face burn. Naru, that arrogant, condescending jerk!

The jerk strode over to Lin. "It's still too early for readings, isn't it? We're not likely to get any until Officer Mujin returns or a suitable substitute has the misfortune of coming here."

"Most likely," Lin agreed. "However, we might be able to collect instances of Kuroba-san's impersonations."

Naru nodded. "I get the feeling Kuroba-san might just show himself to us, but in the meantime, go ahead with that list. Try to find out if he was partially responsible for what happened just now too."

I was still confused as I helped Naru move the equipment. I asked, "What about Kuroba-san and what happened just now?"

Naru glanced over at me just as his face entered a shadow. "This makes two people who want us to see anything that may happen in Kuroba-san's hallway tonight. What if Kuroba-san is the one truly responsible for the suggestion?"

"Well, when you put it that way, I guess it does seem like he might be behind it," I said, "but why would Kuroba-san want us to watch his hallway tonight?"

"As it is right now, there are too many possible reasons for me to offer one."

I set the first load of equipment down in the hallway and glanced around, hoping to ask Kasu real quick, but I didn't see Kasu anywhere. My stomach churned. "Hey Naru, do you think Kuroba-san may have been impersonating Kasu Paru in the cafeteria today? I don't see him anywhere even though he said this is his hallway."

Naru's eyes widened and his lips slowly formed a smirk. "Well Mai, if it was really someone named Kasu Paru you were talking to during lunch today, how would he know so much about the prisoner who died ten years ago? But I don't think Kuroba-san could impersonate Kasu Paru either: I don't think Kasu Paru's a real person."

I blinked. "Why not?"

Naru looked my way, an amused smirk hanging on his face. "Say that name as one word, Mai."

"Kasuparu?" I asked.

Naru nodded. "And what sort of name is _Kasuparu_?"

"Uh..." I had no idea. How could Naru expect me to know something like that?

After a pause, Naru filled me in. "It's English, Mai. _Kasuparu_ is a Japanese version of the English name _Casper_. It would seem Kuroba-san gave you that name as an allusion to a well-known fictitious ghost in American culture."

Naru educated me about _Casper the Friendly Ghost_ and babbled on about the implications of Kuroba-san's reference. He was angry at Kuroba-san, saying that Kuroba-san is a type of ghost capable of interacting with the living, yet Kuroba-san had never told anyone what had happened to him.

The dead serious sound of Naru's lecture is the last thing I remembered before I entered the astral plane.

* * *

I stood in the empty, black-and-white hallway. "Hello?" I called, but no one answered.

I looked around for anyone else on the astral plane, and I finally saw a young woman in the hallway. She had long, dark, messy hair. She dressed like a prison guard, but I had the feeling she was not. The feeling manifested itself in the goosebumps that were forming on my arms as I looked at the woman. Who was she?

She walked down the hall and stopped in front of Kuroba-san's cell. She pulled out a set of keys and looked around, letting me glimpse her face and see that she looked eerily like Inspector Nakamori. Was that his daughter, Aoko-san?

I went to take a closer look as Aoko-san let herself into the cell. She went, stood over Kuroba-san, and fished something out of her pocket, a small case of some sort. She opened it up, revealing a red and white pill with Roman letters printed on the side.

Aoko-san put the pill into Kuroba-san's mouth. Then, she pulled out a skinny water bottle and poured its contents down the young man's throat. Kuroba-san swallowed the liquid and the pill. Aoko-san smirked and ran off.

I wanted to chase the girl, but I was frozen at the sight before me: Kuroba-san went white and sweaty and woke up screaming. "Kuroba-san!" I called when I could find my voice. I start to run to his side, but a voice called out my name.

I turned and saw Gene standing there, pointing after Aoko-san. "There's nothing else you can do for Kuroba-san."

Trembling, I nodded. I followed Gene down the hallway until I could see where Aoko-san had run off to. She had met up with a giant of a man who, like her, was dressed in a guard's uniform. Over his shoulder, he lugged an actual prison guard, who was struggling to stay conscious.

Was that Officer Yagi, the guard that Oogami-san had mentioned was a suspect in Kuroba-san's death? Officer Yagi vowed to the true killers as he passed out, "I'll make sure you come to justice."

* * *

I woke up sobbing and told Naru all I'd seen, but after that, Naru just spent the rest of the day being his usual narcissistic self and grumbling about Kuroba-san. And when it came time for him and me to stake out Kuroba-san's hallway with Lin monitoring things from the base, the gloomy guy didn't even apologize for waking up the prisoners with our conversation.

Naru and I waited for several hours for Kuroba-san to show us why he'd had us stake out his hallway. Of course, that meant that I'd started to become bored and sleepy by the time a pair of cold hands pushed me from behind.

I fell onto the floor from my sitting position, and when I opened my eyes I saw a pair of black shoes in front of me. They weren't Naru's.

I looked up quickly. There stood the prison guard who had been killed ten years ago!

Officer Yagi looked down at me, a frown on his face. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

I felt myself answering before I thought things through, "Inspector Nakamori hired us to look into a haunting here. Do you know anything about it? Officer Yagi, right? You were on duty the night Kuroba-san was murdered, weren't you? Didn't you see the murderer's face?"

The guard nodded. "All of that's right. Kuroba was murdered by the same woman who's been running around here all over the place. She's dangerous and I've been trying to get rid of her. You should get out of here, young lady." With that, Officer Yagi picked me up and spun me around to face my body.

I realized that Naru hadn't noticed a thing, and I could see why: Kuroba-san was behind me, keeping me sitting up despite me not sitting against a wall. It looked like a natural enough sitting position too.

I was then thrown into my body. As I came too, I felt Kuroba-san's hand clamped over my mouth. I was covered in goosebumps from his cold body against mine. "Please don't be scared of me," he pleaded in my ear, but the situation I was in give me every reason to worry, and I couldn't even squirm in his arms.

Kuroba-san said in my voice, "Hey, Naru? I'm going to the restroom, okay? I'll be right back."

My heart raced. Didn't someone say Kuroba-san was perfect in his impersonations? Naru might not even realize who'd spoken to him!

I struggled, but Kuroba-san maintained his firm grip as he pulled me to his feet. Naru answered the ghost, not realizing that it wasn't me who had spoken. "That's fine. Just be careful: we don't know Kuroba-san's intentions, after all, even if he claims to be a friendly ghost."

I wanted to shout, but a certain dead thief was still covering my mouth. That idiot Naru! Could he really not tell that I was being kidnapped by Kuroba-san just then?


	4. Chapter III

Chapter III

Days 3-4: 11 and 10 Days Ago

* * *

My heartbeat sped up as Kuroba dragged me through the hallways. My fear built up until I let out the loudest scream I've ever produced inside the break room's mixed bathroom.

I was scared. Scared of Kuroba, the "friendly" ghost. Scared of the dead criminal who'd kidnapped me. I felt the unnerving feeling I got from him in the cafeteria return in more force than before.

Kuroba said something to me, but I wasn't listening. All I could think about was somehow escaping with him between me and the exit. Nowhere else to go, I backed further into the restroom. Trembling, I raised my right hand to start the nine cuts.

Kuroba lunged forward and grabbed my hands in his. I recoiled, but then I heard him speak gently. "Hey," he said. "I said I was sorry."

I was still trembling. If he was sorry, why had he kidnapped me in the first place? I clenched my hands into fist on instinct.

Kuroba rubbed my fist with his hands and slowly opened it up to reveal a white rose blooming into existence. "I mean it: I'm sorry. I'm not going to hurt you."

His tone was sincere, and I felt the big brotherly feeling replacing the intimidating one again almost as though it was a supernatural element in and of itself. I didn't know what to make of this guy really. However, I felt myself begin to relax, and then Kuroba smiled at me once again.

Kuroba released my hand. "I just want to talk – away from your boss who's been grumbling about me all day and from the prisoners who wouldn't associate with Kasu Paru if they knew what he really was."

My face was red. So Kuroba wanted to talk in private, but why did he have to kidnap me to do that? "You had better start talking then," I growled.

"Ah," he groaned. "Don't be that way. At least I was right, wasn't I?"

"About what?"

"You know I mistook Officer Mujin for Aoko Nakamori right?" he asked, to which I nodded. He continued. "I'd wanted to know if the reason 'Aoko' was here had anything to do with me, so I followed her around. While I was doing so, I witnessed the attacks and I saw who the culprit was: Officer Batou Yagi."

Kaito explained that he figured out that Officer Yagi had died around the same time that he had when he saw that the guard hadn't aged a bit since the night he'd disappeared, but the thief didn't know why the ghostly guard had attacked Officer Mujin. Kuroba said that he'd wanted our equipment to check if Officer Yagi was still regularly at his post and had really wanted me there to check the astral plane in case Officer Yagi gave our equipment the same static that he gave the security cameras when he was up to something.

Meanwhile, I was starting to understand why Naru was irritated with Kuroba. I interrupted him to ask, "Inspector Nakamori said he dismissed that first case as a mental health problem at first. If you knew Officer Yagi was behind it, then why didn't you tell anyone it was a ghost? It would have prevented the other attacks!"

Kuroba looked taken aback rather than ashamed, "And why do you think that I _didn't_ tell anyone? I immediately spread the news that the jail is haunted as Kasu Paru, but no one took me seriously until the incident in the break room, and even then, they shifted the blame to me." He sighed, "I heard your boss complaining about me not telling anyone that I'm trapped here. For his information, automatically getting the blame is very close to why I tried to hide that I'm haunting the jail. If anyone knew who I really was, they'd fear me rather than help me, and I would be actually completely alone for the first time. Could you get him not to rat me out?"

I groaned. "I can try, but I can't promise anything. I would say it wouldn't matter either way because we would help you move on quickly, but Inspector Nakamori's making us leave tomorrow. Unless you'll let us prove to _him_ that you're still here?"

"Actually, I already took care of that. He doesn't need to know about me. Anyway, was I right about Officer Yagi?"

"Yes."

Kuroba's eyes lit up. "I knew it!" He stepped aside so he no longer blocked the exit. "Um, unless you want something from me while you have me here, I suggest you go."

There was something I knew I had to tell him if I could just remember what it was. Kuroba waited patiently for a few moments before he decided to break the silence. "You know, Mai, when I told you that you could call me by my given name during lunch today, it was more than my Kasu Paru persona talking."

I wasn't quite sure how to feel about that. Normally, I really did enjoy being on a first-name basis, but as much as Kuroba did feel safe for a ghost, I wasn't quite sure what to make of him. And it wasn't like I was his girlfriend or childhood friend or anything.

And that's what made me remember the sad news I had to give him: "Hey, Kaito, do you know what Aoko Nakamori did to you? Wait, if you were spying on me and Naru the whole time, of course you do."

"Not the whole time," Kaito confessed. "I decided to give you and your boss some privacy after you broke down crying. Um, what did Aoko do to me?"

I shifted uncomfortably between one foot and the other as I relayed my vision to the spirit. He was crying by the end.

"Are you sure?" he asked. "I knew Hakuba and the inspector suspected foul play, but it was Aoko who killed me? That doesn't... Aoko would never do that!"

Tears were in my eyes too. "Kaito, who else could it be?"

The ghost looked like he was trying to hold back his sobs, but they still choked out of him. He thanked me between sobs and vanished.

When Naru and Lin burst into the restroom to rescue me from my kidnapper, I told them what happened, and I made sure to tell Naru that Kaito hadn't approached the living for help because he was scared of rejection.

* * *

The next morning, Inspector Nakamori informed us that he was keeping us on the case. By that time, he was no longer angry. If anything, he was concerned.

"I believe you about Kaito still being here," he started. "The guards and prisoners heard him crying all last night. What happened?"

I flinched, knowing that the inspector definitely would not like the news I'd delivered to Kaito any more than the ghost had. I glanced over at Naru and Lin, wondering how we were going to handle this.

Naru played it cool. "Kuroba-san received some bad news last night," he informed the inspector.

Nakamori looked sympathetic instead of acting like an ogre for once. I guess even he has a humane side though, and from what I'd learned about him and Kaito, I probably should have seen the sympathy coming. "Did Kaito find out about the deaths of the others close to him?"

Naru shook his head. "Not exactly. Mai had a vision about his death, and he didn't like what happened to him."

"Poor kid. Didn't any of you try to cheer him up?"

Naru and Lin turned their eyes toward me, and Nakamori followed suit. Uncomfortably, I shook my head. "I wanted to, but I didn't know what I could say after something like that."

The inspector growled. "Can you get him to let me talk to him?"

I gulped. I knew it was a bad idea for the ogreish inspector to talk to Kaito while he was still upset, but I knew Nakamori wouldn't see it that way. "Are you sure he wants to talk about it right now?"

"Probably not, but Kaito has a bad habit of bottling things up. He _needs_ to talk to someone. Someone who knows him." The inspector was becoming agitated again. "Let me talk to Kaito!"

I opened my mouth to protest again, but my boss stopped me, ordering me and Lin to go ask Kaito to talk to the inspector while he brought Nakamori up to speed. But then I realized that Naru was volunteering to break the bad news to Nakamori himself, so I closed my mouth and nodded instead.

Lin and I walked through the halls until we reached Kaito's cell, where I was the one to whisper through the bars, "Kaito, are you in there?" I repeated myself, ignoring the leers from the other prisoners until Kaito finally responded.

I felt something cold brush up against my ear, and Kaito's voice whispered, "What do you want?"

"Inspector Nakamori wants to talk to you."

"The inspector?" Kaito echoed. "So he found out I'm still here? How did he take the news?"

I told him of the inspector's earlier uncharacteristically sympathetic mood. "I think he wants to help you, Kaito."

I couldn't tell what Kaito was feeling as he asked flatly, "So he wants to see me?"

"Yeah."

"Where is he now?"

I told him that Nakamori was in his office, but I still didn't think it was a good idea for Kaito to have to deal with Nakamori if he was still upset. "Hey, Kaito, you don't have to go talk to him if you don't want to," I said, but there was no reply from the ghost.

"Kaito?" Still no answer. Had he already left? If that was the case and he didn't want to talk to Nakamori, I had to do something! I turned and sprinted back toward Nakamori's office.

I burst into the office and saw that Kaito was already with the inspector. "Wait!" I called. "Kaito, don't go to him just out of a sense of guilt or something. Wait until you're up to it!"

Kaito and Nakamori turned to look at me, both clearly startled. Then I realized that I had interrupted a bear hug. Nakamori hadn't been acting like an ogre for a second time that morning.

My boss glared at me. "I don't think you have anything to worry about, Mai. They know each other well enough that they can handle being around each other."

And then Kaito asked, "I'm sorry, but could you two leave?"

Naru agreed for us. "We'll be outside if anything happens," he promised. "Come on, Mai."

I wanted to ask how we'd know if the both of them would be alright if we left them in a room together, but I glanced back and saw that Nakamori had already slung his arm around Kaito's shoulders. The two of them looked fine. I left the room, glancing back once again as I walked through the door, but the two of them were still fine.


	5. Chapter IV

**My passion for the DCMK fandom has faded so I'm sick of uploading this story bit by bit. Luckily, I wrote this all and did quite a bit of revision while I still had that passion, but now I'm uploading the remaining chapters all at once. Sorry for the major chapter dump. Please enjoy the story.**

* * *

Chapter IV

Day 4: Ten Days Ago (Part I)

* * *

Naru left me waiting outside Nakamori's office as he went to call Hara in to exorcise Yagi, but he returned soon after, saying that Hara would be able to come in a day or two.

After that, the two of us waited for over an hour for Inspector Nakamori or Kaito to need us. But when something finally happened, it wasn't what we'd been waiting for: instead of anyone coming out of the inspector's office, we saw Oogami leading a baseball-cap-wearing dark-skinned man about Takigawa's age that I recognized as Heiji Hattori from the papers down the hallway.

"That must be the detective Inspector Nakamori wanted to call in," Naru said as we stood up to greet Hattori more properly. "One of the ones involved with Kid's arrest, if you'll remember."

"Of course I do, I know who Heiji Hattori is!" I growled.

"Sh!" Naru hissed at me in return.

"Is something going on here?" Oogami asked.

"We were just waiting..." I started, but Naru interrupted me with his own explanation:

"Nakamori had us find Kuroba for him, and they're having a private conversation in his office."

At this point, Naru and I we were surprised to hear a child's voice pipe up, "Hey, mister! Who's Kuroba?"

I looked over to Oogami's side and saw a small boy I hadn't seen before standing there. Could he be here with Hattori? Well, in any case, I could only manage to say one thing about the boy, "So cute..."

The child eyed me nervously as Oogami answered his question, but if I made him nervous, it was nothing compared to the look that flashed across his face as Oogami said Kaito's full name. Did the kid recognize that name somehow? How could that be?

I bent down to speak with the boy as the adults talked to each other. "Little boy, what are you doing in a place like this?"

The kid was shying away from me, but he still answered my question. "Heiji-occhan and I are going to solve a case here. I want to be a detective when I grow up, so he let me be his assistant."

"But isn't this case a little scary for you? There are ghosts here, after all."

The child gave me a flat look. "There are no such things as ghosts," he said just as flatly. He sounded completely confident in his statement.

A child skeptic? If he weren't a little boy, I'd be a lot more annoyed with him. As it was, there was someone I _was_ annoyed at. "Did Detective Hattori tell you that?"

The boy shook his head. "He didn't need to. We've already solved a lot of supernatural cases. They were always hoaxes."

I gave him a knowing smile. "I think you might find this case a bit different than those ones."

"This case won't be different," the boy declared. "Dead people simply cannot do anything unless someone among the living is impersonating them. It's impossible, even if Kid is supposed to be the ghost. I mean, the original needed his son to impersonate him to come back, right?"

My mouth dropped open a little. That would explain why the kid recognized the name _Kaito Kuroba_, but how would he know that?

I would have asked the boy about that, but it was then that Nakamori's office door opened. I looked over quickly instead and saw Nakamori exiting with an arm still around Kaito. I saw Kaito stiffen slightly as he saw the newcomers, especially the little boy, and for a moment, I could have sworn that _he_ was the one seeing a ghost.

"Kaito?" I asked, but the ghost didn't respond except to look at Nakamori with an odd look on his face.

Nakamori was busy unenthusiastically greeting Hattori and then commenting on the little boy. "I see you brought Chibisuke with you today."

"Yeah!" Hattori said. "This kid and I are going to take care of your ghost problem for you, aren't we, Chibi?"

The little boy growled. "I told you not to call me that!"

"Sorry, sorry! It's a good nickname for you, but maybe you'll grow out of it." Hattori snickered. "Then again, maybe you won't!"

It really wasn't nice to pick on a little boy because of his size, and I was about to tell Hattori off for that, but Chibisuke spoke up quicker than I could. "Hattori!"

I stared at Chibisuke. Sure his elder had just picked on his size, but why in the world had he dropped name honorifics with his elder? Just what kind of relationship did those two have with each other?

As though sensing my gaze, Chibisuke suddenly tensed, his head turning over his shoulder to look back at me. His hand flew to the back of his neck, and he said nervously, "I mean, Heiji-occhan sure is mean!"

I tried hard not to stare at Chibisuke as Nakamori intervened between him and Hattori and then started leading the introductions, but it was hard. I sensed something weird about the kid, and it wasn't just his uncanny knowledge of Kaito and rude behavior toward Hattori.

I finally managed to pay attention to the introductions as Nakamori was stating that Hattori had moved to Tokyo to look for his missing detective rival, Shin'ichi Kudou. By that time, Nakamori was ready to introduce Chibisuke.

"This is Chibisuke Kako-kun. He's an orphan that Hattori-kun took in. He's also training to be a detective, so he often assists Hattori-kun with his cases."

"I'm going to be a better detective than Hattori-occhan when I grow up," Chibisuke bragged. "I'm going to be just as good as Shin'ichi Kudou!"

"Why you..." Hattori growled. Chibisuke flashed him a sharp smile.

The inspector only had one person left to introduce: Kaito. He didn't go straight for an introduction. Instead, he glanced over at the ghost.

Kaito's expression had disappeared under a poker face, but his gaze was on Chibisuke. I suddenly got the feeling something very bad was about to happen. "Inspector," Kaito asked, "is that kid...?"

I looked between Kaito and Chibisuke. There were no clues there as to what shocker the haunting would hold, but then Nakamori answered Kaito's unfinished question: "Ah, well, he still reminds me of Conan-kun too, but I don't think they're related."

Some kind of goblin of deja-vu hopped around inside my mind, taunting me with the name Conan. Where had I heard it before?

"That eight-year-old detective who went missing a little after he saw Kid arrested?" Naru asked the inspector, but the inspector ignored him.

The inspector ignored Naru because Kaito had replied, "No, it's not that I think Conan-kun and Chibisuke-kun are relatives." Kaito was then kneeling down, looking Chibisuke straight in the eye, and saying in a grave tone, "It's that Chibisuke-kun looks a little _too_ much like Conan-kun, if you know what I mean."

The words were as cold as icicles on my skin. I shivered, and Chibisuke froze. Kaito could be _creepy_ when he wanted to be.

"Are you saying you think he is Conan-kun?" Nakamori asked, apparently oblivious to the atmosphere. "You're getting new faces among the living mixed up with people you knew again. In any case, Chibisuke-kun is too young to be that natural enemy of yours."

Kaito's gaze was still fixed on Chibisuke. He said pointedly, "The little detective was too young to be my natural enemy too." He acted as though he'd made some sort of brilliant argument.

I whispered to Naru, "Do you think we should be worried about this?"

"Of course we should be, stupid. This makes the second person Kuroba's made a mistake about this case, this one not even as understandable."

I nodded, thinking that the mistake explained my creepy feeling. "Then Kaito... he's not stable, is he?"

"Even corporeal ghosts lose their minds over time," Naru replied. "What worries me most is that it's only been ten years. Kuroba-san should have more of a grip on reality than this."

Naru gazed at Kaito, who was being approached by Hattori. He and I watched in surprise as Hattori reached out and grabbed Kaito's cheek. The detective initially recoiled from contact with Kaito' cold skin, but he grabbed the ghost's cheek again quickly and tugged hard enough to make Kaito yelp. Poor Kaito underwent a thorough face-pinching in that manner before he managed to get away from the detective, muttering something about his face not being a mask.

Looking at Kaito, Hattori stroked his chin for a few moments, and then he bent over and discussed something with Chibisuke. Kaito looked at the two of them with a carefully guarded expression.

Finally, Kaito glanced over at Nakamori. "Inspector...?"

The inspector sighed. "Do what you have to."

Kaito stepped toward the detectives, clearing his throat. "I'm sorry to have a dead man reappear after all these years, but there's a reason for this."

"That reason?" Hattori prompted.

Kaito smirked. "To draw attention to the unsolved murder of Kaito Kuroba, and also the concurring deaths of his best friend and his mother. It's about time someone solved them. Don't you agree, detectives?"

Hattori and Chibisuke sweat-dropped. Hattori frowned at Kaito. "Why did you need to create a hoax just for that? Why not hire a detective in the first place?"

The ghost chuckled. "If you want to try to solve the mystery of why there's a ghost before you, go right ahead, detectives. I'll even give you a hint: you'll need to know why there were murders here ten years ago before you can resolve this case – and so will we victims."

"Is that a challenge?" Hattori asked.

The ghost snorted. "Of course it is."

This time, it was Chibisuke who responded to Kaito. The boy smirked and said, "Very well." Hattori was also smirking.

Kaito returned the detectives' smirks. "Best of luck, Great-Detective-of-the-West-san." He gave a very slight pause and then acknowledged Chibisuke somewhat facetiously, "and _tantei-kun!_" After that, Kaito simply vanished, and the detectives looked a little unnerved but did not even actually shudder.

Hattori straightened up and faced Nakamori. "Chibi and I need you to tell us a little more about the case, Inspector."

The inspector nodded. He turned to us briefly. "Unless one of you wants to report on your investigation, you're not needed right now."

Naru nodded. "We'll talk later, but for the moment, I would like to do more research on Officer Yagi."

Nakamori grunted. "You do that. This way, Hattori-kun."

I stood there after Nakamori and the detectives had entered the office, staring at the door. "There is something wrong with that little kid," I told Naru, but he just brushed it off as Chibisuke having seen death before.

Chibisuke had given me the creeps, but Kaito had scared me even more with his break from reality. "And what do we do about Kaito?" I asked my boss.

"We'll have to solve his case as quickly as possible, before his mind slips even further from reality."

"How?"

Naru looked at me. "Didn't you hear what he just told the detectives? Before this case can be resolved, he needs to know how he and his loved ones died – and not just in terms of that vision of yours. I think we'll have to cooperate with Detective Hattori for that because there are some mysteries we cannot solve with our abilities alone."

I blinked. "What happened to there being no case you can't solve?"

Naru looked away. "I was talking about hauntings, not murders. Anyway, I have a few questions about Detective Hattori that I was hoping you could answer, Mai, you having lived in Japan longer than I have."

"Okay?"

"He's been looking for that Detective Kudou Inspector Nakamori mentioned since I got here, but I'm afraid I don't know much about Detective Kudou or his disappearance. I remember Lin mentioning him being involved with Kid."

I shrugged. "I just know he was Detective Hattori's rival in high school who was just as good as he was. I know the two of them became best friends at some point, but then Detective Kudou went missing nine years ago, and Detective Hattori still can't find what happened to him."

Naru nodded. "I guess I'll have to do my own research on him at some point. Now, Mai, I want you to go to all staff members who worked here ten years ago and ask them what they remember about Officer Yagi. While you're at it, find out what they know about Aoko Nakamori and Kuroba's mother – especially about their deaths."

"Okay," I agreed. "And what about you?"

Naru didn't even spare me a glance as he walked away. "I'm going to see if I can learn anything more than Lin did on Conan Edogawa."

* * *

I spent the rest of the morning interviewing the staff about the people Naru had asked me to. I finished just before lunch, and I had started walking back to base when I heard Hattori call, "Excuse me, Taniyama-han?"

I turned around and saw him and Chibisuke. "Yes?"

"I've gotta go check some dings against da old man Mouri, who originally helped investigate Kuroba-han's death, but I don't want Chibisuke around dat drunkard," he said. "Would ya mind keepin' an eye on Chibi for a while? Ya can make him help ya with ya's ghost-huntin' or whatever if ya want."

I smiled at Chibisuke, who was giving me puppy-dog eyes. "Well, okay, but he's got to behave and not touch any of our equipment."

Chibisuke instantly brightened and gave me a yes that seemed too ready to be sincere.

I put a stern look on my face. "I mean it. My boss and Lin get even grumpier than normal about this sort of thing."

"Don't worry, miss. I can behave."

"I'll leave the chibi to ya then." Hattori turned and very casually called, "Later!"

I tucked my clipboard under my arm and tried to call Chibisuke to me, only to find that he'd already run up to me while I wasn't looking. Why did I get the feeling this kid was going to be tough to babysit?

I took his hand to make sure he didn't slip off on me, and I proceeded to base. On the way there, Chibisuke asked me all sorts of questions on the basics of ghost hunting. He asked the most questions about us catching human culprits who dress up like ghosts, as he'd seen on some American TV show called Scooby Doo. Chibisuke asked questions until I answered whether I knew any way to make a human feel cold to the touch with a no.

I thought he was quite curious for a little skeptic.

When we arrived at base, I finally let go of Chibisuke's hand and reminded him to behave. He flashed me an innocent look and said, "As I said, I'll be good."

"You'd better be," I replied as we entered base.

"Lin-san," I called. "I have the information Naru wanted."

As usual, Lin didn't even look up from his laptop as he grunted, "Leave it on the desk. I'll type it up for him later."

"Okay." I set the clipboard down, but when I turned around, Hattori's kid was no longer there. Instead, on the wall, there was a blackish writing: _Find Conan-kun before it's too late._


	6. Chapter V

Chapter V

Day 4: Ten Days Ago (Part II)

* * *

I screamed. "Lin-san!" I pointed at the message.

"Who's Conan-kun?"

"The detective that Inspector Nakamori brought in had a little boy with him earlier, and Kaito mistook him for someone named Conan. I was watching him for the detective – he was just here!"

Lin swore. He pulled up the camera feed instantly. "I don't see him anywhere." The man rose to his feet. "I'll help you look. We need to act quickly!"

I ran through the door, Lin on my tail. "Chibisuke-kun!"

"Taniyama-san!" Lin called. He pointed down the hallway. "I'll look this way!"

"Okay!"

I ran through the halls of the psychologists' offices, taking a quick look in every nook and cranny and asking about him from everyone I ran across, but no one had seen him. I frantically searched the other floors as well, but no sign of little Chibisuke.

At that point, I turned around and headed back to base, hoping Lin had found Chibisuke. When I got back, I found that Lin had done the same thing. The Chibisuke's disappearance had just gotten more serious.

Lin went and got security. They took a look at all the cameras, but Chibisuke was nowhere to be seen. They analyzed the shots of the psychology hallway around the time of his disappearance for clues, and they shared the pictures with Lin and I to look for tells of the supernatural.

There was a photo of Chibisuke entering the office with me, but by the next timed security photo, he'd already vanished and Lin and I had been running out to look for him. I was starting to get worried.

"Lin-san, you don't think Kaito would actually kill him, do you? Just as we thought we were dealing with some of the least harmful ghosts?"

"Naru and I didn't trust Kuroba-kun. We can hope that this second kidnapping turns out as well as what he did to you, but it's not wise to assume that ghost is harmless."

"But...!" I started, but Lin was right. Even if I'd gotten a feeling like Kaito was like a big brother, it didn't mean he was entirely harmless. I _had_ to talk to him about Chibisuke! I dashed out the door, headed for Kaito's cell.

On my way to Kaito's cell, I bumped into Naru, and he demanded to know why I was in a rush. I filled him in.

Naru remembered Kaito mistaking Chibisuke for Conan that morning too, so he came with me. He banged on the bars of Kaito's cell until the ghost spoke to us.

"Kaito, where is Chibisuke-kun?" I demanded.

"You mean he isn't with Hattori?"

"No! Hattori left me in charge, and YOU took him."

Kaito found this funny. He laughed under his breath. "You wouldn't be the first girl to lose track of that runt. He's good at slipping off on his own."

Naru informed him sternly, "Kuroba, you don't know Chibisuke-kun. The one you're thinking of is Conan."

"The two of them aren't so different."

Naru's serious voice contrasted with the amused tone Kaito had just used. "Where is the boy?"

"How should I know? That kid should be fine. He probably found something he wanted to investigate."

"Then what was with that message on the wall?" I cried.

"Message?" Kaito echoed.

"A bloody message on the wall of our base telling us to find him before it's too late! You left it, didn't you?"

Kaito's eyebrow twitched. "No, I didn't. That brat."

Naru started to tell Kaito off for concealing Chibisuke's location, but the ghost continued to insist that he didn't know where the boy was. Naru gave up, instead promising to come talk to Kaito about Conan later. He took me to ask security to help us look for Chibisuke instead of pressing the ghost for his whereabouts after that.

After that, Naru wanted to examine the evidence security had on the crime scene himself. Given the nature of the case, they let him.

Naru stroked his chin. "This does look like a supernatural disappearance," he said, just restating what we already knew, "which means either Kaito Kuroba or Officer Batou Yagi is the culprit. However, since all the incidents Yagi was involved in shorted the cameras out, the fact that they kept functioning means that Kuroba is the more likely culprit."

I nodded.

"And we know that the motive is Conan-kun," Naru continued, "so I want to review the information Lin found on him, and I want you to press Inspector Nakamori for any information he has on the relationship between Conan-kun and Kid."

Naru went up to base, and I went to find the inspector. I informed Nakamori that Chibisuke had gone missing and asked him about the link between Conan and Kid.

Nakamori informed me that Conan was Kid's most difficult opponent, but he didn't see any reason why Kid would want Conan out of the way after he'd already been sent to prison. He offered a few suggestions of where Kid would hide someone and even helped us look, but in the end, Chibisuke had vanished without a trace.

Nakamori swore once everyone had gathered together with no luck. "This is almost just like Conan-kun."

"What happened to Edogawa Conan?" I asked.

"He too vanished without a trace – about a month after the murders connected to Kaito-kun."

Naru contributed his two bits to the conversation at this point: "There have been no documented cases of ghosts causing people to vanish forever without a trace. Careful investigation has always turned something up of them, even if it's their corpse."

"Naru, you shouldn't say things like that at a time like this!" I scolded him.

"We cannot guarantee that we will find that boy alive, Mai. In any case, I'm afraid I have more bad news."

My heart started to race. "What did you find out about Conan-kun?"

"Not much. There wasn't anything of his left behind when he disappeared. I did learn that there were a few people who weren't taking his disappearance as seriously as they should, including Detective Hattori. But in any instance, the bad news I was talking about is that all our documents on this case have gone missing, except for the few reports that haven't been filed yet."

I was horrified. Our case documents had gone missing? What could anyone gain from stealing our case documents?

I hadn't realized that I'd asked my last question aloud until Naru answered, "I don't know, but the answer to that question would be very valuable. I have a feeling it's related to Chibisuke-kun's disappearance."

Just as I thought things couldn't get any worse at that moment, a voice that spoke in the Kansai accent greeted, "Hey, everyone! Guess what? I got what I needed from old man Mouri!"

No one had told Heiji Hattori yet that his boy was missing.

Hattori frowned when he saw the look on all of our faces. "What's with all dis fear all of a sudden?"

I felt tears welling up in my eyes. "I'm sorry, Detective Hattori, but Chibisuke-kun... I couldn't keep my eyes on him!"

"So he gave you the slip?"

Nakamori spoke up. "Hattori-kun, everyone's been searching for Chibisuke-kun for hours, but all we have is a kidnapping mystery."

"Kidnappin'? Hurry up and explain!"

"The security cameras have pictures of Chibisuke-kun entering SPR's base with Taniyama-san, but not of him actually leaving. It would be a disappearance if it weren't for the threatening note left behind on the wall." Nakamori showed the detective the pictures.

Hattori smirked. "Dis is no kidnappin'. And besides dat, dere's only one place da chibi could be."

We all looked at Hattori. "And where's that, Hattori-kun?" the inspector asked.

Hattori looked at Naru. "If ya'd show me to yas' base, I can show everyone."

We all took Hattori to our base, where he went up to the bloody message and reached for the wall. He peeled it off, revealing that it had only been a giant vinyl sticker and not blood. "It looks like a supernatural hoax. Da ones I run inta are usually used ta disguise murder, but in dis case, I dink it's too camouflage somethin' else."

"How did you reach that conclusion?" asked the inspector.

"It comes down ta who had da opportunity," Hattori replied. He turned the three of us in SPR. "Can ya all testify dat dis wasn't here when ya arrived dis mornin'?"

We all nodded.

"And what time was dat?"

"Around eight."

Hattori turned to the police. "What time did ya come to inspect da crime scene?"

"It was around noon."

"And dis ding was already on da wall?"

"Yes."

Hattori regarded us. "Da culprit could only be someone who entered dis room sometime between eight and noon. Could ya state where ya were at dat time?"

Lin spoke first. "I've been in this room since eight this morning. I only left after that message appeared, but I certainly didn't put it up."

"Den ya must know everyone who came in here after eight."

Lin nodded. "Among the living, only Taniyama and Chibisuke-kun."

"Den da culprit must be either ya, Taniyama-san, or Chibisuke, and I'm inclined ta dink it was Chibisuke."

"Why's that?" Nakamori asked.

Hattori put his hand on a table next ta da wall. "If ya look closely, dere's a child's footprint on dis table. Now why would dat be? Only if Chibi climbed up here. He'd most likely do dat ta put da vinyl on. If he vanished after dat, it's 'cause he hid. If da security camera never caught him comin' out, it means he's still in here."

Hattori approached a large cabinet near the floor. "Unless I'm very much mistaken," said the detective, "Chibisuke should be in here."

Hattori opened the door and there was Chibisuke. He sat with a penlight, reading our case files.

"Anythin' interestin', Chibi? …. Ow!"

"Couldn't you have bought more time?" Chibisuke complained. "I haven't found _anything_ that hints at how Kuroba's being impersonated."

"You were in on this?" Naru asked Hattori, clearly displeased.

I was furious too, so I yelled at Hattori. "If you needed to see our case files, you could have just asked, you know! We had every intention of cooperating with you!"

Hattori laughed it off. "Sorry 'bout dat. In all honesty, Chibisuke and I didn' know how much we could trust ya, so he and I decided ta play along with ya's actor's claims dat he dinks Chibisuke is Conan-kun and went to get dis customized vinyl message from a friend of ours dat own such equipment in a hurry dis mornin'." Hattori shrugged. "We figured if ya ghost hunters were in on da hoax, we would have been able ta catch ya out by yas' reaction right den and dere and use it ta show da police what's up with ya, but judgin' by ya's reaction, ya weren't called in as a knowin' part of da hoax."

Hattori then continued with his story. "Anyway, around noon, I ran an errand dat I probably could've taken Chibisuke along on anyway and left him to investigate ya."

The detective turned to his young charge. "So, what's da report on dese guys?"

"Based on the data from their reports, they investigate fairly well, as long as they're not counting 'visions' as evidence. They look for any more reasonable explanation that they actually have the ability to come up with first, but I think they honestly believe this place is haunted. Or at least, that's a six-and-a-half-year-old's opinion." Chibisuke giggled nervously again.

As Nakamori and his subordinates returned to their duties, grumbling, Hattori peered at SPR from under the brim of his hat. "In dat case, we'll trust your raw data – but not your conclusions – for now."

Hattori wanted to compare notes with us then and there, but we were all ticked at him and Chibisuke. Naru glared at him for awhile, but he finally agreed that we would speak to them the next day around the time Nakamori wanted to show everyone something in his office.


	7. Chapter VI

Chapter VI

Day 5: Nine Days Ago (Part I)

* * *

Nine days ago in the morning, we met in Nakamori's office, where he was gazing sorrowfully at a picture in a frame until everyone had arrived. When he finally spoke, it was to Hattori and Chibisuke first, but his gaze never left the picture. "I know you two don't believe in visions of the past, but knowing the truth about this case, I can't discount that Taniyama-chan knows something about what happened. If you two could save your skepticism until the end, this will just take a moment."

"Don't tell us ya's caught up in this too, Inspector," Hattori grumbled.

Chibisuke nudged him. "Ne, Occhan. Let's see how they handle this, okay?"

Hattori relented. "We'll observe." The detectives fell silent.

Nakamori ignored the calculating expressions on the detectives' faces as he turned to me. "I wanted to confirm Kaito's killer's identity with you. I don't think my daughter would linger in this world to kill someone a few hours after she died, but I want to be sure."

The inspector showed me the picture he'd been gazing at. In it was a messy-haired girl wearing a dress too young for her. "Is this the person you saw?"

I took a good look at her face and all the tension melted out of my body. "It's not," I said. "The murderer had thicker eyebrows and a longer nose."

Hattori leaned over to whisper something in the privacy of Chibisuke's ear, but I was close enough to hear what he said. "How did Taniyama-han say Kid died anyway?"

"I didn't read it," Chibisuke replied. "She said she'd had some vision."

I knew I should have expected such behavior from the two detectives, but their skepticism still ticked me off. "Oh, like _you_ could come up with a better explanation with your detective work! In case you haven't noticed, the police inspector who handled the case doesn't disagree with the poisoning I saw!"

Hattori and Chibisuke quickly exchanged looks as I finished that last sentence. Hattori gave me an odd look. "You say he was poisoned?"

"He was! I saw it!"

Chibisuke looked at me almost accusingly. "Then I bet you saw how he was poisoned too, and you haven't told us yet."

I was about to refuse to repeat my vision for the detectives, but I caught the look Naru was giving me out the corner of my eye. I huffed, but I started telling the detectives when and where Kaito was poisoned, only to be interrupted when I said that the murderer took out a red and white pill to poison him.

"A red and white pill?" Chibisuke repeated softly. There was a startled look on his face. "Could you describe it more? Its size? Its shape? Its composition? Anything?"

I blinked. A kid like Chibisuke couldn't recognize the drug, right?

I showed Chibisuke the size of the pill with my fingers. "It was about this big. It was a long, round capsule. I couldn't tell what it was made out of, but I think it had some writing on the side. I couldn't tell what it said though."

Chibisuke looked urgent now. "Are you sure?"

"Oi," Hattori interrupted. "Could it be that stuff?"

The child flung around. "I'm checking! But how would she know about it?" He whipped back to face me. "Are you sure you couldn't make out any of the characters?"

I paused, trying to remember. "I think it started with Roman alphabet letter _a_."

The little boy went white and clammy. "A. P. T. X. 4. 8. 6. 9. Is that what it said?"

The boy was scaring me, so I hesitated. "It could have said that. What is it?"

He was sweating as much as if he'd just run a marathon and was shivering as though he'd been left in a freezer as he answered. "It's a poison no one should know about. Open your mouth about it, and you're dead. Its creators will kill you. And not just you. Everyone you could have told too." He paused. "Like what happened to Kid."

Chibisuke looked as though he could have a seizure right then and there, age notwithstanding.

I looked at the adult detective to clear things up, but he was scared too. Hattori pulled something out from under his shirt – an omamori of all things? - and dropped it around Chibisuke's neck.

"Stay here," he ordered. "Keep that on. We've made a big mistake, Kudou!" Then he bolted, slamming the door behind him.

Chibisuke ran and tried the door. He found it already blocked. He kicked it, hard. The door splintered, but remained stubbornly shut.

"Naru, did you see that?" I whispered.

"I have eyes."

Nakamori picked Chibisuke up. "Calm down," he said, surprisingly calm. "You're safe now, so calm down and tell me what you and Hattori-kun haven't told the police about this case! Why are you panicking?"

The child looked up at Nakamori with big eyes. "Inspector, you don't understand! Someone in SPR belongs to the yakuza, and Hattori went to get the evidence."

"The yakuza!? Who is it?" The inspector set Chibisuke down. He stepped in front of the boy and pulled out his gun. "Who?"

"The only one I know it's _not_ is Taniyama-chan. Inspector, she's in more danger than I am!"

My eyes widened. I didn't think Naru or Lin could be a criminal, but why would the inspector trust the word of a kid like that? Could weird little Chibisuke-kun actually know something I didn't?

"Taniyama-chan, get behind me!" shouted Nakamori. I did as he'd ordered.

We stood that way for hours. The tension never lessened. It stood threatening in the room until it reached its climax as the office door slowly opened.

Nakamori fixed his gun at the door. At last, someone entered, revealing themself to be Detective Hattori.

Detective Hattori looked confused. "Eh? What's with da gun?"

"What's with the gun?" the inspector echoed, now just as confused because of the anti-climatic moment. "Chibisuke-kun said that one of the ghost hunters here is in the yakuza."

"The chibi panicked," Hattori replied. "I don't have any reason ta suspect any of dem's involved in crime."

Chibisuke burst out from our hiding spot behind Nakamori. He stopped at just the right distance to confront his mentor. "Then why did Mai-nee-san report seeing an Apotoxin pill?" Chibisuke shouted. "And why did you run off, saying we made a big mistake?"

"Dummy! If anyone here was involved with dose guys, Taniyama-han would already be dead for reportin' dat pill! Dat's how I know dose guys haven' heard 'bout dis yet."

"But then...?" Chibisuke's voice trailed off in a whine as he finally calmed down. "That mistake?"

"Da mistake was disregarding Taniyama-han's abilities. Da fact dat she is still alive says dat dose guys are not involved in dis again yet, but what does the fact that she could _describe_ one of dose pills when tellin' us 'bout Kid's murder say?"

Chibisuke looked at his mentor through half-moon eyes. "Heiji-occhan, you're not saying..."

The detective interrupted. "Look, I know dese sorts of groups are usually frauds, but we know dere are such dings as visions, don't we? How many times have I saved ya's life because I'd had a vision 'bout ya's upcomin' death?"

It was then that I started to see Detective Hattori in a new light. I looked over at Lin and Naru to see if they'd noticed too. Lin looked impassive as ever. Naru had a contemplative look on his face as he surveyed both Detective Hattori and Chibisuke-kun.

I tried to make myself a mental note to ask Naru what he was thinking later as Hattori and Chibisuke finished their conversation with something about ghosts and omamori.

Inspector Nakamori cut them short. "If no one should know about Apotoxin, then how do you, and why haven't you told the police about it?"

"Ah, it's actually an _FBI_ investigation," Hattori admitted. "We only know 'cause Chibi here's one of da few people lucky enough ta survive da poison. Da FBI told me just what I need to know 'bout dat when dey put him under my watch." He went more serious as he informed us, "Yas'll need ta keep yas' mouths shut 'bout dis, 'cause dere would be too many deaths if ya talked, includin' yas' own."

"The FBI?" Inspector Nakamori gasped. "Just who did Kaito-kun tick off while he was making a criminal career for himself to have fun?"

The detectives didn't answer, but Chibisuke did respond. "He was Kid to have fun? Is that what he gave for his statement? You should thank him, when you get to the afterlife, for giving a statement that kept you alive when everyone else he associated with was killed over what he knew."

As Nakamori tried to process what Chibisuke had just said, the boy turned to Hattori. "I want to go talk to that 'ghost' now."

The detectives started to leave. On impulse, I called after them, "Wait!" They looked back. I stood there awkwardly for a minute before I told them, "I just thought you should know: Officer Yagi's ghost is also involved in this case, and I think even possibly Conan Edogawa's."

The little skeptic smiled. "Conan Edogawa's ghost? Yes, maybe he is."

I stared at the door long after it had been closed. Boy was that little kid _weird_!

While the detectives went looking for the ghosts, we went to check on our readings. There was nothing significant to be seen, so I made tea and we discussed our recent research and observations instead. Our conversation quickly turned to what had happened in Nakamori's office that morning.

"From what Detective Hattori said, it sounds like he's a spiritualist. This is the first I've heard of it." I said.

Naru was bored with my comment. "Not all psychics are spiritualists. Detective Hattori probably prefers to use more established fields of science in his career."

"But that would mean that even though he's a detective, he's not a true skeptic, right?"

"Your point, Mai?"

I pouted a bit. Why did Naru always have to say things in such a mean way?

"Your point?" Naru repeated.

"If Detective Hattori's not a true skeptic," I stated, "then that would explain what Chibisuke-kun said to me about Detective Hattori not teaching him to be skeptical of the supernatural."

"Yes, and?"

Still annoyed with Naru, I continued, "Detective Hattori's not a skeptic, but Chibisuke-kun is. So why did Chibisuke-kun agree that a ghost might be involved in this case?"

Naru finally stopped prodding me for relevance. "You're talking about him agreeing that Conan-kun's ghost could be involved in this case, aren't you? I believe he was speaking metaphorically, Mai. Conan-kun's disappearance is possibly involved in this case, so since Chibisuke-kun's master detective knew Conan-kun personally, he might have simply been saying that this case could call up some memories for Detective Hattori, whether Conan-kun's disappearance is relevant or not."

"I see. So we still don't even know if Conan-kun's involved, huh?" I asked. I felt let down that I hadn't contributed something as important as I'd thought I would.

"But speaking of Conan-kun's disappearance," Naru said, "I think what's even more disturbing about that is what's not related to our case."

I looked at Naru, waiting for what he'd figured out.

"You mean that thing with Detective Kudou?" Lin prompted.

"That's exactly it."


	8. Chapter VII

Chapter VII

Day 5: Nine Days Ago (Part II)

* * *

Naru and Lin weren't exactly letting me in the loop, so I asked, "What are you two talking about?"

Naru huffed. "I suppose I shouldn't be so harsh on you for not thinking about this yourself, Mai. After all, you can't possibly use more of a brain than you have."

I fumed. "Well, _excuse me_ for being stupid!"

"As it is, I suppose I'll have to walk you through it."

I crossed my arms and tapped my foot. "Well, let's hear it, _Doctor Deduction_."

I could almost swear that Naru sent me an amused glance instead of a small glare for that line. "Very well. Let's focus on Detective Hattori. His most memorable missing person's case is the one whose victim he still talks about often, right? That of Detective Kudou."

"Yeah?"

"I learned when I was trying to get telemetric readings on Conan-kun that Detective Kudou had been out of contact with pretty much everyone for at least a year before he was declared officially missing, but it was during that period that Detective Hattori befriended both Detective Kudou and Conan-kun."

I didn't get it yet. "Did those two go missing about the same time or something?"

"I'm getting there, Mai. Hold your horses." Naru gave me a reproaching look.

He took a sip of tea and continued. "Anyway, I want you to think about how Detective Hattori treats Chibisuke-kun during this next part. Detective Hattori kept mixing Conan-kun up with his missing rival, even calling the boy _Kudou_ and treating him like an equal investigator. But back then, most people thought very little of it because Conan-kun certainly resembled Detective Kudou and he was the strangest little boy anyone had ever met. He knew things no other child should know and acted like an adult."

I shivered. "No wonder why more than one person at this prison said that Chibisuke-kun reminds them of Conan-kun."

"Then you know where I'm going with this?" Naru asked.

I nodded. "Detective Kudou was possessing Conan-kun when Detective Hattori befriended him, and now Detective Kudou's possessing Chibisuke-kun. And Detective Hattori knows he's possessing those kids."

"Yes. Detective Kudou has changed child hosts, for some reason, about every year and a half. No one knows what happened to any of the children after he was done with them. I also don't know why Detective Kudou keeps choosing small children to possess, but if those close to people like _Conan-kun_ weren't too worried about their disappearance, they might have only been worried about Detective Kudou after all. Very suspicious."

My breath caught. "Could Detective Kudou be responsible for that too?"

"It's possible. It's less likely with the charms Detective Hattori's been wearing, but if Detective Kudou is still able to posses Chibisuke-kun after Detective Hattori put his omamori on him, he may be powerful enough to keep control over multiple people at once. If we're correct, the implications are frightening."

I shivered. "What do we do about him?"

"We're getting him exorcised. Until then, we're pretending that we think he's a creepy little kid named Chibisuke Kako."

It was then that Chibisuke ran into our base and hid behind my chair. "Can anyone here exorcise spirits?" he asked.

My eyes widened. If something was after Detective Kudou, Chibisuke-kun could get hurt or killed too, and whatever it was had to be dangerous if Detective Kudou had stopped pretending to be a skeptic. "Is it Conan-kun?" I asked.

"It's not Conan. It's _Kid!_ Heiji-nii-chan is keeping him distracted, but I don't know if he can handle him!"

"We'll check it out," Naru told him. "Lin, the cameras?"

Chibisuke cried, "But they won't be there! You didn't put any cameras on the roof!"

Naru looked at the little boy. "The roof? Lin!"

Lin jumped up and followed Naru right away. "Mai!" Naru called. "You stay here and _don't let your eyes off Chibisuke-kun!"_

I bent down. "Chibisuke-kun, what did the ghost do to you?"

"He..." Chibisuke started, but then Detective Hattori burst in.

"Kudou!" Hattori grabbed Chibisuke and slung him over his shoulder, with much protest from the undead detective. "I'm pullin' ya off dis case, now!"

Chibisuke struggled against the man's grasp. "You can't! Even the way things are, this is the only lead I've got on _them_! This was my case first, Hattori!"

"Kudou, ya's da one who got him involved. Don'tcha dink he remembers dat? He's gonna blame ya for his death, and dere's nothin' really we can do to stop his revenge if we stay here, even with Kazuha's omamori!"

I remembered the way Kaito seemed to recognize the same force behind Chibisuke-kun as behind Conan-kun. Did he know it was Detective Kudou?

"I _know _that, Hattori! Now put me down or I'll dart you!"

Hattori reluctantly put Chibisuke down. He crossed his arms and glared at him. "Just what do ya plan ta do if he comes after ya, huh?"

"Since _they're_ involved, it's a risk I'm willing to take." Chibisuke turned around and looked up at me with big, pleading eyes. "Anyway, Mai-nee-chan, can you exorcise a spirit?"

"Well, I can help spirits willingly go where they're supposed to be, but if I had to exorcise an unwilling spirit, I only know a little warding magic. Chibisuke-kun, what did Kaito do to you?"

"Nothing, but he knows. If he tells anyone, I'm dead."

I definitely had to side with Kaito over Detective Kudou for that. "Wait a minute. You're saying that you want me to painfully exorcise him even though he didn't do anything?"

Chibisuke opened his mouth to protest, but then he stopped and looked as though he were thinking about something.

Immediately after that, Lin and Naru returned. "Kuroba-san already left the roof. Now, would you two mind explaining what happened?"

Hattori laughed briefly. "No can do. Come on, Chibi. If ya's gonna stay on dis case, I want it wrapped up quick."

But Chibisuke had been thinking deeply. He looked up, startled, at the sound of Hattori's voice. "Oh, yeah," he agreed, and the two detectives left.

Naru looked directly at me. "Mai?"

"Detective Kudou said Kaito didn't attack. He ran in here asking for an exorcist because he's scared of something Kaito knows. Then Detective Hattori said that Kaito wants revenge for something Detective Kudou did while Kaito was still alive. Detective Kudou didn't correct him, and he begged to stay on the case."

Naru nodded. "I wonder how much Kuroba-san knows about the situation. Come on, Mai: you and I are going to talk to him."

Kaito was not hard to find. He had gone back to his cell, and something had happened to make him give up trying to hide from the other prisoners. I got the feeling from the way he was grumbling about Hattori that the dark-skinned detective had had something to do with that.

"Hey, Kaito?" I called. "What happened between you and the detectives earlier?"

The ghost sighed. "Those two know who murdered me, but they aren't ready to share their conclusions. They said they were still working on the motive."

"How did that end up with Chibisuke-kun running into our base, claiming you were after him?" Naru asked.

"I'm almost entirely certain that no one could figure out my murderer's motives without talking to _me_, so I had to prove my identity to them for them to accept the information. They were too scared to stick around once I'd done that."

"So did they get the information they need?" Naru asked.

The ghost sadly shook his head no.

Naru offered to pass along information to the detectives for Kaito, but the ghost refused. Kaito was uncompromising in his refusal too.

"Look," the ghost finally explained, "this stuff could get you killed, alright? I'm not telling it to anyone but those particular detectives themselves."

Of course, once someone really stands up to Naru, he usually backs down, and this case was no exception. Naru decided to change the topic to Conan Edogawa's disappearance instead.

"Are you aware that Conan Edogawa disappeared a month after you died?"

Kaito was apathetic. "No, but it makes sense."

I was puzzled. I know Kaito and Conan were enemies, but there was still something wrong with the ghost's apathy. I glanced over at Naru and mouthed 'another apathetic person?' He nodded slightly in response, eyes lighting up for some reason.

"Something interesting?" Kaito asked us, suspicion written all over his face.

I asked him quickly, "Doesn't it worry you at all that the eight-year-old detective connected to you disappeared?"

The ghost smiled enigmatically. "I'd only be worried if you lot started investigating his disappearance. That could get him killed."

"Are you saying you know what happened to him?" I shouted, but Kaito just kept smiling.

Naru sighed. "If he knows, he's not telling us. In any case, Mai, we should keep investigating Conan-kun regardless of what this guy says. After all, he even stopped telling us the truth about Conan-kun and Chibisuke-kun being connected."

He turned to leave, but Kaito's voice carried after him, Kaito's expression going blank. "Why do you say Conan-kun and Chibisuke-kun are connected? Didn't Inspector Nakamori say that the two of them simply look alike?"

Naru stopped. I could basically hear the smirk in his voice as he repeated what he'd learned of Kaito's conversation with the detectives on the rooftop. "So, Kuroba, how do you explain why Detective Hattori and Chibisuke-kun would think that Chibisuke-kun was involved with you while you were alive?" He finally turned to face Kaito, smiling like the cat that caught the canary.

But Kaito didn't talk so easily. "I don't know. How would you explain it?"

"We need your information on Conan-kun," Naru stated, carefully staring Kaito down. "A young boy's life is on the line."

"Chibisuke-kun's?"

"Yes."

Kaito shook his head. "I'm sorry. I can't tell you."

"Why not?"

"It could get both boys killed."

"We can protect them from Detective Kudou."

The look on Kaito's face then reminded me of the one he'd had when he'd realized that Officer Mujin was not Aoko Nakamori. "What do you mean?"

"Did you think we're ghost hunters for nothing? We can handle spirits if we have to."

Kaito still looked stunned for a moment. "Handle spirits? Wait a minute, do you think Conan-kun and Chibisuke-kun need protection from _Kudou?_"

"Well, don't they? They and all the others that Detective Kudou possessed."

"That Kudou _possessed?_" Kaito stared at Naru for a moment, eyes widening. He swore. "So _that's_ how he ended up as such a small boy!"

"Didn't you know?" I asked weakly.

"Not really," Kaito answered. "I knew it was Kudou inside Conan-kun's body, but I thought it was just a really clever disguise."

"So he could hide from the yakuza that had poisoned him, right?" Naru asked.

"How do you know about the yakuza!?"

I briefly filled Kaito in on Detective Kudou mistaking Naru and Lin for yakuza members. Naru backed me up, reciting more details about Chibisuke's reaction to recognizing the poison used on Kaito than I had remembered.

By the time we were done, Kaito had sunk to a sitting position against a wall, slouched over with his head buried in one of his hands. "I see. I'd have to agree with Kudou on at least one thing – you probably will die if you talk about the poison."

I had seen plenty of sad ghosts during my time at SPR, but Kaito was one of the saddest I'd seen at that moment. "Kaito?" I called.

"I'm sorry to have gotten you guys mixed up in this at all," he said. "I understand now who killed me and maybe even why, but I'm afraid I'm not crossing over any time soon. I can't until those guys are gone, and I can't allow you to risk chasing them." He sighed. "Do what you can for Officer Yagi, and send Kudou and Hattori to talk to me, will you? That's all that can be done for your case now."

"But Kaito, whatever it is, if you'd just let it go..." I trailed off, seeing the look the ghost was giving me.

"I can't. Not while other people are still in danger. I think, I think I became a ghost to protect them." He straightened up against the wall and lifted his head. He had a wistful smile one his face now. "I think Kudou's in the same boat."

"By possessing little kids?" Naru scoffed.

"Something doesn't add up about that: I don't think either Kudou or Hattori would allow little kids to be placed in danger for this. Even if Kudou did possess a little kid, I can't imagine Hattori sanctioning that."

"Kuroba..."

Kaito sent a sharp look at Naru. "I would like to speak to those two about Chibisuke-kun. Do you think you could get them to come talk to me?"

"We think..." Naru tried again, but I interrupted him this time.

"Naru, do you think Kaito might be able to break Detective Kudou's influence over Detective Hattori?"

"Corporeal ghosts aren't known for being capable of that. However, he may be able to talk Detective Kudou into something while we have Lin try to break Detective Hattori out of it." He looked over at Kaito. "Any objections?"

"No problem. I can talk to Kudou."


	9. Chapter VIII

Chapter VIII

Day 5: Nine Days Ago (Part III)

* * *

Naru sent me to look for the detectives with a warning not to call Detective Kudou by his real name, as if I were that stupid. I found the two inside the administration office, Hattori reading something on the computers, and Kudou looking over actual paperwork – what looked like signed copies of court decisions involving the detention center's prisoners. I first went over to Kudou and knelt down to his level.

"Chibisuke-kun," I said gently, "I just talked with Kaito. He swears he's not going to hurt you. He wants to talk to you now."

Kudou looked up from the paperwork he was reading. "Really?" he asked, using that childish act of his. "But he knew that secret about me. And besides, Hattori-occhan said he was going to hurt me."

"I'm sure Detective Hattori was worried because you're a kid. But you've got to remember: Kid's got a soft spot for kids. Besides, just knowing your secret won't hurt you, right?"

Kudou almost looked frightened but for his too-relaxed posture. Odd, he was terrified of Kaito the other day, so what was up with him now? "But..."

"It's okay. I don't think Kaito's ghost has actually ever harmed anyone."

The detective gave a firm nod and ran off. I crossed the room to where Hattori was reading what appeared to be a printing log. "Excuse me, Detective Hattori?"

The baseball fan looked up. "Oh, Taniyama-han, didja need somethin'?"

"Shibuya and I have a few questions for you. They're urgent."

Hattori nodded and closed out of the document he'd been reading. I led him back to our base, where Naru and Lin were ready to interrogate him.

Hattori took a seat and the questioning began. The detective quickly got nervous when he realized what we were asking about his assistant and began telling lies that even I could spot right away.

Naru and Lin had strangely satisfied looks on their faces and they asked him about his bad cover story of Chibisuke being a distant cousin to both Conan and Kudou, but I didn't see what they found so interesting. In fact, I was starting to get sleepy.

I tried to make myself pay attention to work, I really did, but my eyes closed within minutes.

* * *

In my sleep, I found myself in a lab of some sorts. I looked around and saw highly-secured containers labeled as uranium, nitroglycerin, and then many other things I'd never heard of. I saw many empty tables and just one that had someone working at it.

I stepped closer to the lab-coated figure who stood dissecting a dark shadow on the table. It appeared to be a reddish-brown-haired young woman with some foreign features. The dark shadow she was dissecting turned out to be a dead mouse.

I looked away from the mouse and found a clipboard resting on the table. It had a paper whose title had the designation APTX4869 – the poison Detective Kudou had identified! Why was I having a vision about the poison we already knew killed Kaito?

I heard the sound of high heels and looked up. Someone was entering the lab, and this person I recognized right away as Kaito's murderer. In her right hand, she held a translucent gemstone with another gemstone inside, the inner one glowing red with a brightness like a spirit would have on the astral plane. In her left hand, the woman held a sealed test tube with red liquid glowing like the inside of the gemstone in it.

As the murderer got closer, the scientist who'd been in the lab heard her footsteps too and looked up. "Mirin?" The word echoed in my vision.

"Sherry," the murderer, Mirin, greeted back. She smirked and held up the gemstone. "We've beaten Kid to it: Pandora."

Mirin set the test tube down next to the dead rat and said something to Sherry, but I didn't hear what it was. Sherry nodded her acceptance, and then Mirin said something else to her. This time, Sherry glared at her, arms shaking in anger, and started shouting.

Sherry and the lab faded from my vision, leaving just the murderer behind. I watched as Mirin turned around and started walking again. As she did, I heard without Mirin speaking: "If that new failed formula of yours ends up approved as a poison, Sherry, I'll slip some of Pandora's tears into a few of the batches, see what the boss thinks of you then."

* * *

I woke up without understanding what my latest vision had to do with the case, so I decided to save it for later and let Naru and Lin continue grilling Hattori for the truth about Chibisuke.

The detective was busy sweating under Naru's and Lin's gazes. "I swear ta ya: Chibi's just a weird lid'l kid!"

Naru stared him down. "Then why don't you treat him like a child?"

"Dat's 'cause..." Hattori started, but he never had a chance to finish.

"Believe it or not," came a new voice from against the side of the room, "but Chibisuke really is just a weird little kid who reminds Detective Hattori of his missing friend. Detective Hattori's only nervous about the questions you're asking because he thinks he'll have to admit that he still believes Detective Kudou is alive." We all turned, startled, and saw Kaito leaning against the wall, arms crossed, sporting a bored expression.

"Kuroba!" Hattori greeted. "Where's Chibi?"

The ghost shrugged. "He should be along any moment now."

Chibisuke burst through the door. "Heiji-occhan! Guess what!? Guess what!? Guess what!?" He bounced up and down as though he'd had too much sugar or something. "Kaito-nii-san is a friendly ghost after all! He said he was sorry for scaring us, and he told me I'm so smart, and he even showed me some magic tricks!"

Chibisuke grabbed one of Hattori's legs and looked up at the detective with puppy dog eyes. "Can we come back and visit Kaito-nii-san every day? Please?"

Naru glared at Kaito. "What's the meaning of this?" he demanded. "We talked about Detective Kudou's case earlier."

Kaito didn't even flinch at the glare Naru sent him. "What does Detective Kudou still have to do with this? Didn't you hear me just say that Chibisuke is simply a weird little kid?" He raised his shoulders slightly. "It seems to me that Detective Hattori keeps trying to befriend aspiring detectives who remind him of his vanished friend, but he isn't very good at keeping them out of danger. I think you read too much into this situation, _ghost hunter-san._"

I looked over at Naru, who seemed ruffled for once, and Lin, who was as unreadable as ever. Could we have been wrong about Kudou possessing Chibisuke? Could the boy really be all he seemed? I looked down at Chibisuke and knew that was wrong. I could feel it in my gut: Chibisuke was no little kid. Before I knew it, I was pointing and Chibisuke and shouting, "That is no little kid!"

Even as my face was heating up from embarrassment, Chibisuke put on a happy face and chirped, "That's right. I'm a _big_ boy now!"

He sure seemed like a little kid, but I knew what my instinct said.

Naru looked my way. "Your intuition?"

I nodded.

Kaito, however, wouldn't back down. He was gentle, at least acting as if he really believed what he was saying, "Look, Mai, hasn't your intuition ever been wrong at least once in a while? 'Cause Chibisuke-kun here really is just a little boy."

"Hey!" Chibisuke protested.

Kaito flashed the boy a wicked smile. "Sorry, _Chibi_. Make it up to you later, 'kay?"

Chibisuke then turned to Hattori to protest instead, but Hattori took it as an excuse to whisk his friend away, claiming he needed to put a cranky little boy to bed. They left us with Kaito instead of themselves to question.

"Kuroba!" Naru snapped. "We talked about this."

As usual, Kaito was unrepentant. "You told me your theory, and you were wrong. There is no supernatural force at work with Chibisuke-kun, so you need to leave him alone." His voice darkened. "And investigating Conan or Detective Kudou could get someone killed, so stay out of that. I can promise you that there's no supernatural cause in those cases either."

With that, Kaito vanished again.

Naru looked like he wanted to murder someone, so Lin and I were quiet for a few moments. But finally, Lin said, "Naru, when you're up to investigating again, Mai fell asleep while we were questioning Detective Hattori."

Naru kept standing there, but he finally sat down. "Did you see anything?"

I told Naru and Lin everything I could remember. At the end of my tale, Naru looked puzzled. "Well, both Kid's target and Apotoxin are related to this case, but there are still a few points I'm confused on." He stood up. "I know Kuroba gave the police an unhelpful statement for his motive, but believe I've got to ask Inspector Nakamori about it yesterday, unless Kuroba becomes helpful again anyway."

"Naru, wait!" Lin called. The sorcerer turned to look at me. "What did you say Mirin-san said she would drop in the poison again?"

"Pandora's tears, but..."

"If that red substance came from that gemstone she mentioned, that could have been Pandora's tears. There _is_ a curse at work here after all."

Naru sat back down. "That is your area of expertise," he acknowledged. "Tell us more."

"There is a gemstone said to shed tears of immortality every ten thousand years when shone under the full moon. Of course, the time and the moon phase don't have anything to them, but there is a gem that sheds tears of immortality and eternal youth, and its name is Pandora."

"So what would happen if its tears were put in a poison?"

"I believe they would let someone survive."

Naru stared at the wall, brain clearly at work behind his intelligent eyes. "Perhaps we were wrong about Detective Kudou possessing little kids, and perhaps Detective Hattori was right about 'Chibisuke-kun' being one of the few to survive the Apotoxin poison."

I didn't follow Naru's train of thought. "That means?"

"I think that the body we thought belonged to a boy named Chibisuke Kako is actually Detective Kudou's own body. It's become younger somehow."

"But what about Conan Edogawa and the others? Even if Detective Kudou had become younger, wouldn't he have grown up again by now?"

"No," Lin said. "Those who have drunk Pandora's tears can't age. It's part of the eternal youth their magic offers." He looked over at the boss as he added, "That is, his body can't age, but his brain seems to be fully developed. He is actually older than you two, so I suggest you treat him appropriately. Right, Naru?"

Naru didn't answer. Instead, he spoke his thoughts. "I wonder what Detective Kudou told Kuroba to get Kuroba to cover for him. If Kuroba was telling the truth about why he wants us to stay out of the case, then he doesn't know that Detective Kudou's immortal."

"Actually, the detective's death is still a valid concern because anyone else who's drunk Pandora's tears can kill him, but are we sure _Detective Kudou_ knows he's immortal?" Lin asked. "He didn't seem to believe in the supernatural until this case, after all."

"You have a point there," Naru conceded. "In that case, when I go talk to Inspector Nakamori, I want you to collect all the information you can about Pandora."

"Right."

I noticed I was the only one without something to do. "What about me?"

Naru looked over at me with his usual expression on his face. "Mai, tea."


	10. Chapter IX

Chapter IX

Days 5-6: Nine and Eight Days Ago

* * *

Naru's tea was still warm at the time that narcissist got back to base. Apparently, Kaito's entire testimony could fit in the space of a sticky note, a sticky note which he didn't show me.

The narcissist asked me a few questions I couldn't answer about Kaito, then sent me to go ask him about his father, magic, what treasure is, and to discreetly ask about immortality and eternal youth as well. I could only assume that these things related to the thief's testimony.

When I reached the thief's cell, Kaito already seemed to know why I was there. "Your boss told you to come talk to me, didn't he?"

I admitted it. "Well yes, but I didn't need much prompting to come talk to you anyway. I mean, you haven't seen the ones you care most about in over a decade, have you? And Inspector Nakamori doesn't usually have the most sympathetic ear."

Kaito sighed and stared at the ceiling. "Of course I miss them, but there are things that matter more than moving on. If I tell you guys what's up, people are going to get killed."

"Why?"

"Because _some people_," the ghost said with disgust, "will sacrifice anything to get what they think they want."

"Money?" I asked. Kaito just sent a smile my way.

But then I remembered, "No, Lin said that gemstone was magic."

Kaito sat up. "What gemstone?" he asked.

"You were looking for a certain gemstone, weren't you?" I asked. "Even though you told Inspector Nakamori that human relationships meant more than any other treasure."

The ghost grew uncharacteristically serious. "What gemstone, Mai?"

I gulped. Kaito was scary when he wanted to be. "I – I had another vision last night."

After that, Kaito made us move to the roof for a more private conversation. "You said you had another vision, Mai? What trouble did it get you in now? You already had something to keep silent about."

I held my arms around myself in a vain attempt to get the goosebumps that covered them to go away. "That gemstone I mentioned, Mirin-san said they beat you to it."

"WHAT? Did they really beat me to it?"

I nodded and the ghost cursed. "Humans were not meant to be that way."

"It really looks like it. Lin did say there was a price for immortality and eternal youth. I mean, just look at Detective Kudou."

The ghost was silent for a moment. Then he asked in a tone that was purely confused. "Why would Kudou become immortal?"

"Um, he didn't mean to," I answered. "It looks like Mirin-san slipped some of Pandora's tears into some of the batches of Apotoxin. Kudou must have gotten a pill from one of those batches. You, on the other hand, Mirin-san must have made sure to give you a pill from a batch that would actually kill you."

"So that's how Kudou ended up like that, huh? Poor guy."

"You probably still know more about his situation than we do though. I mean, you did cover up for him yesterday, so he probably told you that he doesn't want anyone to know he's immortal."

"Not exactly," Kaito said. "Although he's definitely noticed he's not aging, I don't think he knows he's immortal – I covered up for him because he convinced me that he is still alive, and he thinks that Mirin-san's organization will come kill him if anyone finds out he survived. If he knew he's immortal, I don't think he'd be so scared of being killed."

"In other words, you were trying to save his life, even though he's your enemy. Or are you truly enemies? I mean, you act a lot different about him than about Mirin-san's group."

Kaito chuckled. "The two of us? Enemies? Still? I'm glad that's not true. We're not anything less than allies now, which gives me reason to worry about him."

"Speaking of which..." The ghost was serious again. "If Mirin-san was willing to risk giving Pandora's tears to the enemy just to get Sherry-san in trouble, what do you think the chances are that she knows another way to silence the Apotoxin victims? Kudou could still be in trouble if you guys blabbed."

My breath caught. "Yesterday, Lin said that Detective Kudou can still be killed by anyone else who's taken Pandora's tears."

The ghost's eyes widened slightly. "Do you guys think Mirin might have drunk some of the tears herself or something like that?"

"It didn't come up."

Kaito cursed loudly. "Did Lin-san say anything about reversing Pandora's curse? I think I can successfully break the news to Kudou that he and possibly some of his enemies are immortal, but I would love some good news to go along with it."

I shook my head. "Hey, Kaito, if you consider immortality a curse, why were you looking for Pandora?"

"You need to know my motive as Kid, huh?" Kaito speculated. "Well, since you've already gotten me to tell you the dangerous part after all, I should tell you so you can report back to your boss, right? I learned that my father had been killed because he was the original Kid, and the men who had killed him had done it because he was a threat to their getting Pandora. I decided that I was going to become Kid to lure those guys into the open and to get to Pandora before them and destroy it so that no one else could be torn away from their loved ones over that stupid hunk of rock."

A gasp escaped from my lips before I knew it. "Oh, Kaito!"

Kaito reached over and wiped tears from my eyes. "If anyone should be crying over this, it's me, not you. I'm the only one who failed here, and because of that I've gotten the ones close to me killed, the detective I respected even back then cursed, and a few ghost hunters stuck with a terrible knowledge to keep quiet about for the sake of their lives."

"But there must be something that can still be done!"

"There is," Kaito agreed. "I failed, but I'm not finished. Kudou, Hattori, and I are doing what we can to take that organization down."

"I'll help too!"

"You can help by not becoming a casualty." The magician spoke firmly.

"But that doesn't help anyone!"

"Then keep Kudou's secret and keep passing any information you get on to only the few of us who can be trusted. That _is_ helping, and it's all you can really do, isn't it? Promise me that's all that you'll try to do."

I broke off contact with Kaito's intense gaze. "I promise."

"Good. I should let you report back to your boss."

"Okay, but Kaito?"

The ghost paused. "Yes?"

"Kaito, if you need a listening ear, you are welcome any time. I don't want this to be just about the case. I mean, we're friends, right?"

"Yeah, that's right," he admitted. "See you later, Mai."

* * *

Hattori and Kudou returned the next morning, Kudou still acting like a hyper little kid. "Good morning!" he called as he tried to run past us. "I'm going to go play with Kaito-nii-san!"

But Naru picked him up by the back of his shirt as though he really were just a hyper little kid. "Not so fast," he told the small detective. "There's something you should know about."

With the look that flashed across Kudou's face, I could almost imagine Naru having grabbed a full-sized man by the back of his shirt and chewing him out that way. My eyebrow twitched. I was about to tell him off when Lin beat me to it.

"Naru!" he scolded. "What did I tell you yesterday?"

Kudou blinked and looked at Lin. "I thought Lin-san didn't like kids?"

No one replied to Kudou's observation, unless Hattori's laughter counted as a response. I sighed. "Naru, don't you think Kaito has more chance of getting through to him about it than we do?"

"I was hoping to tell him at the same time we tell his friend here who's been helping him."

Hattori took that as his cue to walk over to us. "What's dis all about anyway?"

"Mai had another vision last night."

"In dat case, no offense, but dis guy would believe a certain dead dief he used ta chase over a bunch of ghost hunters. I, on da oder hand, would be interested in what yas' have ta say."

Kudou glared at Hattori from his position dangling by his shirt. "Oi, you still believe these guys?"

Hattori shrugged. "I'll hear 'em out. Ya should go talk ta Kid 'bout dat proposal." He looked Naru dead in the eyes. "Shibuya-kun, ya should put 'im down now."

Kudou ran off the second Naru finally put him down. "Proposal?" Naru echoed.

"Kid told Kudou yesterday dat he wants ta work together ta catch da guys dat poisoned da both of 'em. Anyway, ya was sayin' somethin' 'bout another vision?"

Despite what he'd said to Kudou, Hattori was open about believing my vision this time.

* * *

Only a few minutes after I finished telling Detective Hattori my vision, Kudou burst in with a madly determined look on his face. He spoke immediately to Lin. "You're Lin-san, right? Tell me how to reverse the curse on me!"

"If reversing it's possible, it won't be easy."

"If it's possible?"

"There is no record of anyone reversing Pandora's curse on anyone. The most likely method of reversing your curse is to obtain the usually well-guarded Pandora gemstone and then using a high amount of psychic energy to destroy it, but for some curses, even destroying the source of the curse won't reverse it. However, there is a known way to get out of Pandora's curse."

"I thought you said it might be irreversible?"

Lin nodded. "If you used the known method, you'd be dead rather than mortal again. The only known way of getting out of Pandora's curse is to die at the hands of one of its victims."

Hattori jumped up. "If ya think it might be reversible, we're willing to try, right Kudou?"

"Yeah." Kudou was smirking in a way that made him look more than a bit touched. He turned toward the doorway, where we saw Kuroba standing. "Can you do it?" he asked.

"I'll need your help to leave this prison even short-term, but find where Pandora is and I can follow you to the place. I don't think I can destroy it though."

"Then that would mean our best bet of finding a source of psychic energy large enough to destroy it is..." Kudou's grin grew a bit bigger as he regarded us as a whole. "What would it take to hire you guys to make sure that stone's destroyed?"

I quickly looked at Naru, suddenly getting the feeling this wasn't going to end well.

Naru replied easily to Kudou, "If Kuroba-san here can't move on until Pandora's destroyed, we've already been hired."

"Brilliant!"

Lin stood up to stare our boss down. "Naru! We don't have the resources to destroy something like that!"

"I do," Naru replied simply.

"Naru, don't do it!" I cried.

But the narcissist simply shot me a look. "If Pandora fell into yakuza hands ten years ago, Mai, that stone is long overdue to be destroyed. I'll do it. I am of legal age, after all. Besides, I'll be fine."

Kudou, Kuroba, and Hattori all smirked. "Welcome ta da team fer dis operation," Hattori said. "I guess dis only leaves da matter of findin' Pandora's last known location and tracin' it from dere."

"Wait, Hattori!" Kudou hissed. "Have they been sworn into secrecy about my secret? If the Black Organization finds out about this, we'll all be killed!"

Lin and I still attempted to change Naru's mind after we swore not to breath a word about Kudou's situation, but he was being too stubborn to back down. In the end, it was Lin and I who gave up. Lin retreated to his laptop while Naru and the detectives dragged me off to question me about the lab's basic size and layout and such, with Kaito tagging along and asking a few questions about security here and there.

I was grudgingly impressed when the detectives figured out which era the lab would have had to be constructed in through something they called building codes. Then, finally Hattori's eyes flashed alight with one very helpful insight.

"Hey, Kudou, did dat lid'l nee-san ever tell ya dat she couldn't use public transportation after she took her own pill? Seein' as how she wouldn't've been able ta use her own vehicles either, she must've _walked_ from her lab to ya's house. Since ya's da one who was familiar with Tokyo ten years ago, do ya know of any places like dat?"

Kudou's expression mirrored the one his friend had had moments before and a smirk eased itself onto his face. "So it's that place, huh? It's still around, and it's probably still being used by _them_ too."

Not that I wanted to go with them to a place that was probably a yakuza base, but I was annoyed by the way the detectives left me and Naru out of the loop. I stood up shaking to stop them from running off to somewhere like that with only Kaito to keep them out of trouble, but Naru stopped me. "No, Mai, they need to do this, and we can't help them with it. Besides, Hara would find it odd if we stopped Officer Yagi's exorcism over this."

"But..."

"They're among the few people who actually have a shot at succeeding. Anyone else would be a liability."

I wasn't happy, but I couldn't do anything about it but worry.


	11. Chapter X

Chapter X

Days 6-11: Eight to Three Days Ago

* * *

It seemed like forever as we waited for Hara to come exorcise Officer Yagi, with nothing to do to keep my mind off the detectives' dangerous situation but to collect any of our case files connected to the yakuza to be handed over to the FBI.

Hara was finally by a few hours later to do the exorcism. Naru gave her a version of the truth behind that case that was missing quite a few details as we lead her to the haunted hallway. Then we watched as she assured the ghost that the culprit behind his death had been found out and was being brought to justice. The exorcism went smoothly.

When she had finished her purification, she reported to Naru. "He's at peace, but I sense another spirit here."

"He's back?" I asked aloud. "That was quick."

Hara's eyes narrowed. She covered her face and asked me, "Could it be that you'd attempted an exorcism before I got here?"

"Not quite," Naru answered her. "The other ghost here just left this prison for a little while. We're handling his situation. You're not needed. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got something to attend to. Lin, could you show Hara out?"

"Naru!"

But Naru just gave his assistant a cold glare. "We've had this discussion, Lin. I'm doing this of my free will, and there's nothing legally you can do to stop me. Unless you know another way to destroy that thing?"

"I'd feel more comfortable if you had help. Will you not call in Takigawa-san?"

"Is he capable of such a feat?"

"Naru, Lin's right. You should have help."

"We don't even know if the detectives have retrieved it yet. If they don't have it, we shouldn't bother him."

"But will you call him in?" Lin pressed.

"I suppose. Would you escort Hara-san out?"

"I'm staying," Hara said.

"I'm afraid that there's nothing for you to do here. I must insist that you leave."

"He's right," a gruff voice interrupted, "you should leave."

We turned and saw Inspector Nakamori walking up to us with Oogami-san and a guard I didn't recognize. "Hokada will escort you, even if you refuse. I'm afraid there's a more immediate criminal investigation here you shouldn't interfere with."

"In that case, we'll leave for the time being as well," Naru said. "We don't want to interfere."

"No, you three stay," Nakamori commanded. "You're coming with me and Oogami to your base."

The guard I hadn't recognized, Hokada, escorted Hara out immediately.

"Did something happen?" Lin asked, but Nakamori didn't answer.

"Oogami-san?"

Oogami shrugged. "I don't know what this is about either. I just know those detectives called a few people to your base by name."

When we got to our base, Hattori was sitting on the desk, a single piece of paper lying next to him. Kudou was waiting by the door in a position to close it once we had all entered the room.

"What's this about a new criminal investigation and why did you call all of us here?" Naru demanded.

"Huh? I know we told da inspector exactly what case we've solved, and it's hardly a new one. We called ya here because we've finally learned da last accomplice in da murders of Officer Batou Yagi an' Kaito Kuroba."

"So you know who that guy was that Mirin was with when she broke in here?"

"That was most likely the agent by the codename of Sake," came Kudou's voice from behind me, back in its childish register. "Heiji-occhan ran into him briefly three years ago – just before Sake was killed. He'd heard that he had a partner named Mirin, but he never found that person."

"Anyway, we knew Sake and Mirin were involved, but dere was at least one more person, wasn't dere?" Hattori continued. "Dat is, da one who leaked Kuroba's name ta 'em in da first place. Dat person works here at da detention center today and is in dis room."

My blood froze. Was one of Kaito's murderers really in that room? I looked at the two who worked at the detention center in alarm.

"The one who leaked must have worried that his name would be connected to the people the ghost hunters found out murdered Kuroba," Oogami reflected. "It must have been someone who wouldn't cooperate with them. Wait – you're not saying it's Inspector Nakamori!?"

"No. Da accomplice also would have had to have da security details – not just shifts – fer Sake an' Mirin ta pull da murders off as cleanly as dey did. He woulda hafta have been someone already workin' here as an administrator. In other words, Oogami-han, da culprit is _you!_"

Oogami laughed. "Well, I admit I did have access to that information back then, but I wasn't the only one. Why couldn't it have been one of the other administrators?"

"Then that would be odd, wouldn't it?" Kudou piped up, "because Heiji-o-cchan and I found out that other prisoner's information has been continually leaked since then. How would someone who'd stopped working here be able to keep leaking information?"

"Oh? Prove it."

Hattori smirked. "Fine den. Inspector Nakamori, would ya look at da paper next to me?"

The inspector picked the paper up. "Why, this is classified information on a prisoner we got last week!" He rounded on Oogami. "You...!"

Oogami waved his hands defensively. "The detective brought in a hard copy of one of our records. He could have made a copy of one in the office here while you gave him permission to search through them, so what does it prove?"

"We didn't copy dis. We found it in a research institute over in Beika. If da police were ta search, I'm certain they'd find more."

"If there _are_ any over there, they must have been stolen without my knowledge!"

"But if that's so," Kudou whined, "then why have you been bringing records with you at night, knowing records can't just leave the building?"

Oogami bent down. "Little boy, why do you say I've been taking records out of here?"

"Because I found a witness!" Kudou chirped.

"And your witness is...?"

"That would be me." Kaito became visible less than a meter away from Oogami.

"Kuroba-kun!" Oogami exclaimed, falling onto his butt. "You...!" The man's face drained of color. He scooted toward Inspector Nakamori. "His witness will never hold up in court, which makes me innocent. Save me!"

"I'm not attacking you," Kaito grumbled. "As it is, the detectives asked me to lend them a hand in presenting the more _solid_ proof of your activities." Kaito held more paper in his hands. "This is the printing log for this detention center."

Oogami started to tremble from his spot on the floor.

With his smirk carrying through to his voice, Kaito started to read the printing log. "Let's start on a date we know you were there, shall we? When Officer Mujin was attacked, it was established that you were in the office after all."

"Here we've got the usual bulk orders for cafeteria food and such, but now this is an interesting part. This detention center had just gotten a new prisoner, right? You printed out five hard copies of the information that day – one was the official file, but what happened to the other four?"

"In fact, when we examined 'em, all ya printin' logs for prisoner's files have an extra copy, an' it's not da only type of file with extra copies either. Well, Oogami-han, can ya explain dat?"

Oogami looked down in mute silence for a few moments. Then finally, "There will be no survivors this time."

"Are ya admittin' to bein' part of da organization?"

"I am part of the organization. I'm not important enough to have a code name, but just as you surmised, I've been giving information from this detention center to the Black Organization. I've been doctoring the financial records to cover up the cost of the extra supplies. The Black Organization looks for talented kids, see? And with criminal records limiting their employment options, many of their best young recruits come out of detention centers. They've been paying me well for it. When Kid here ended up in our detention center, I knew I'd be rewarded handsomely for passing along his information and the security details. But now that you've let Inspector Nakamori know, they'll come after me as well as you."

"No," Kudou said. "Inspector Nakamori won't be saying a thing about you." This statement was uncontested by the inspector.

"Why not?" Oogami asked.

"Because da FBI relieved him of your case. Dey'll be here any moment to take ya away. Inspector Nakamori will simply detain ya 'til den."

"The FBI? Well-played, but the Black Organization will still notice I've left my post."

"I wouldn't worry about that," Kaito said. "I've already resigned from the Black Organization in your place and faked your death for you. The detectives told the FBI beforehand that they have a disguise artist who's capable of doing that."

"It will keep me alive, right?" Oogami grunted.

"Of course," Kaito assured. "You should try to be a little grateful. Do you think I was happy to assist someone who had a hand in not only my own death, but in my mother's and my best friend's as well? You're lucky the detectives talked me into this."

* * *

Four days ago, Detective Kudou had popped into SPR for a bit, asking to see Naru or Lin. He was being very secretive toward me. When he came with Kaito and Kuroba to watch Naru and Monk destroy Pandora the next day, I found out what he'd been up to, and it was truly horrible.

Kudou sat in the corner, having refused to dress in the over-sized clothing that Detective Hattori had brought him. His friend sat right beside him.

When Takigawa came in, he grumbled something about curse gems. "Alright, so how bad are we dealing with?" he asked.

Naru answered with a question. "Have you heard of Pandora?"

Takigawa swore. "You mean you want me to go up against _that_?"

"You'll simply be assisting me. If we both go up against it, there will be less chance of anyone ending up in the hospital."

"I'll get changed into full robes," Takigawa answered. "You don't do anything stupid." He brushed passed Hattori and Kudou on his way to the restrooms. "You the clients?"

"Somethin' like dat," Hattori answered. "I didn' know monks were allowed to grow hair 'round here."

"I've been taking some time off," Takigawa grumbled as he entered the restroom to change. The detectives were quiet when he reemerged.

Takigawa stretched. "Let's do this, Naru!"

Naru began to stare at Pandora and Takigawa began to chant. The Pandora gem bounced around inside the confines of Lin's circle and began to glow an angry red in response to the chanting.

Meanwhile, psycho-kinetic energy was building up around Naru. He gathered it into a ball between his hands and tossed it at the stone.

There was a flash of brilliant red light. Just for a moment. I looked over at Naru to make sure he was alright, but even though he was, I knew with every fiber of my being that something was horribly wrong. My next guess was to check on the ghost.

When I looked at Kaito, the ghost was smiling. _Thank you_. I heard in my head. There was a fully grown man with him who I didn't recognize, also smiling at me, and somehow I knew that the thanks I'd heard came from him as well. I knew the ghosts would be at peace, but I still didn't know what was wrong. Both ghosts were gone by the time Hattori's distraught cry came from the corner of the room: "Kudou!"

We all turned and looked toward the source of the cry. Detective Hattori sat there with the limp, motionless, still child-like form of Detective Kudou in his arms. "He's- he's dead!"

Then that man I had seen with Kaito...!

"Pandora's curse was the only thing that was keeping him alive," Naru said. He added, gently for once, "Your friend knew that, but he wanted his curse broken anyway. He knew the yakuza's secret weapon would die with him, and he'd stop being in a state that would separate him from his mortal friends forever. He came and saw me yesterday and asked me to explain this to you when he was gone. If you look on his face, you'll find him smiling."

"I know. I dought- dat _ahou_."

My eyes had filled with tears and my hand had come to cover my mouth as I looked at the sad scene before me. "Detective Kudou..."


	12. Epilogue

Epilogue

Right Now

* * *

My name is Mai Taniyama. I'm an investigator at Shibuya Psychic Research – the Japanese branch of the British Society of Psychical Research.

I love my job, but sometimes we see the saddest cases. Three days ago, someone who'd been involved in one of our cases passed away. The official cause of death is undetermined, but we know he'd been poisoned.

Now I quietly sit in a corner as Detective Kudou's mourners say their last goodbyes. In a moment, his remains will be given the same treatment that Kaito Kuroba's were a decade ago, but I know his spirit went together with Kaito Kuroba to its next place.


End file.
